-1: 36
I walked with Anis through the streets of the Ark. Due to my attire... and definitely due to the fact that I looked like a futuristic knight, I was getting all sorts of attention.
Said attention also fell onto Anis as we walked, but she didn't seem to mind it.
I glanced over at her and said, "So, what do you wanna do today? Since you're wearing that casual yellow and white quarter zip and yoga pants, I'm guess we're just doing normal stuff?"
Anis rolled her eyes. "Like I said, we're going shopping, Mister Forgetful." She paused, looking at the attention they were getting. "...Or I was planning to go shopping. But at this rate, it might be a hassle..." She tapped at my armor and said, "Do you seriously have to wear this around everywhere?"
"Of course I do. Listen."
Anis pursed her lips, but then she did.
And when she was quiet, the crowd's whispers became clear.
"That armor... It's the Commander of the Brave!"
"Wow! He really looks like a knight!"
"I heard he ACTUALLY fights Raptures!"
"Seriously? Then... does that mean humans have a chance?"
"That girl's definitely a Nikke, right? She's too pretty."
"Well, a guy like that... only a Nikke could probably handle him, right?"
"Oh man, if he can fight Raptures, imagine how strong he is. Those manly hands gripping you tight and-"
Ooookay, enough eavesdropping.
Anis clearly heard that last conversation too since she turned a bright red. "W-Whatever! Come on!" She quickly dragged me off and said, "There's a place on Royal Road I want to check out. If you're gonna dress like a knight, then act like one!"
I laughed. "Well then." I scooped her up in my arms.
"Kya?! W-W-Wait-"
"Let's go, Milady." I chuckled and walked off with her.
As I did...
"DID HE JUST LIFT A NIKKE?!"
"WHAT?!"
"Oh my god! Am I seeing things?"
"It's the armor. It MUST be the armor."
"There's no marking on the armor, so it's not Tetra, Missilis, or Elysion tech..."
...I heard a bunch of troublesome comments and implications.
But that was a problem for future me.
Right now, I had a former idol to spoil.
===
While Anis and the commander were out on their date, Rapi and Marian sat together in the Commander's Office, sorting out paperwork with Shifty over a video call.
Marian finished reviewing the latest reports from Suri about how much Rapture parts they were receiving due to the Outpost defense and then frowned. "Is this... accurate?"
Rapi glanced over. "It would appear so. Suri isn't the sort to embellish this sort of thing. If anything, she's underplaying how much there is."
Over the comms, Shifty adjusted her headset and said, "Even then... This is ridiculous. How are you receiving hundreds of Rapture cores per hour? And then this battle data... hundreds of thousands?! The credits too! Where are you even getting this much money from?!"
Marian flipped through the papers and said, "Well... Apparently, Nami is an expert at bureaucracy and investments? It seems like she's continuously added facilities that various Nikke squads requested while setting up proper streams of income. And we're getting quite the traffic."
Rapi checked the numbers on her end and said, "...Seems to check out. Considering that even Matis has stopped by the Outpost to spend some time using the facilities. Since Nami put a fee on using them, and since they're used so frequently..."
"...Money likely won't be a concern?" Marian finished and then smiled. "Well. That's a relief off the commander's shoulders."
Shifty leaned forward on her display and said, "It might be a relief off Commander Hoopa's shoulders, but it's a huge burden on mine! I'm the one who has to sort out the taxes! And file the paperwork!"
"Well." Rapi chuckled. "Considering you get thirty percent from what we make as our personal operator, I think that's a fair exchange, isn't it?"
Shifty froze. Then she slowly said, "Thirty percent...? Three Zero? Thirty? Almost a third? For me?"
Marian nodded. "Mmhm. Think of it as... hazard pay."
"Wait a minute!" Shifty huffed. "That's just a bribe!"
Rapi tilted her head. "Is it working?"
"...Hah. I'll look into tax law..."
Marian giggled. "We appreciate you, Shifty."
"Yeah, yeah... Where is Commander Hoopa anyway?"
Rapi flipped through a stack of transfer requests to the Brave Squad and said, "He's taking Anis out on a date. Knowing him, headlines will pop up sooner rather than later."
Marian's phone buzzed. Glancing at it, she saw Neon spamming the group chat with pictures of Hoopa running through the streets with Anis clinging to his neck.
"...Well now." Marian huffed. "...Someone's enjoying herself."
Rapi's eye twitched. Then she smiled and said, "I'm glad."
Marian gasped. "Rapi~ Are you jealous?"
"...I'm not."
"You ARE!"
"...No."
"Yes!"
"...I'm not jealous."
"Then why is your hair red?"
Rapi froze and looked down at her hair. And, like Marian said, it had turned a flaming red. Probably in reaction to her emotions...
'Yep! No point hiding it, Rapi! You're burning hotter than me with jealousy and envy right now!'
Red Hood's voice echoed in Rapi's mind.
Rapi clicked her tongue. "...It's a new style."
"A new style?" Marian hummed. "Maybe I should try one too? Do you think the Commander likes white hair? I've always wanted to try bleaching my hair."
"..."
===
"Wow~" Neon looked around the recycling center and said, "So this is where Master keeps spending all his time!"
Endless walked in behind Neon and said, "Affirmative. Other than the Commander's Office, this is where Commander spends a majority of his time."
"Whoa." Neon stared at the monomolecular bladed weaponry hung up on the wall. "...These have serious firepower." She nodded. "They're just blades, but these things can DEFINITELY tear through a horde of Raptures! In fact..." She reached out to take a zweihander off the wall and then immediately dropped it, sending it clattering on the ground in its sheath. "WHOA! It's heavy!"
"Hm?" Endless tilted her head. Her violet eyes flickered with light, clearly running calculations in her head. But then she paused, her normally blank face filled with confusion. "...That does not compute. Commander lifted it with ease."
"Huh? Master did?" Neon struggled to lift the sheathed zweihander back up. "...How?!"
Endless frowned and then bent down to pick up the blade that she clearly recorded her commander wielding. But when she tried lifting it, she froze. "...This is impossible."
She remembered it.
And to confirm, Endless directly replayed the memory she had of her commander swinging the various blades around to test them, easily cleaving through the Rapture scraps.
Then Endless replayed the schematics she had glanced upon the terminal that her commander had used to create the blades.
"...Error. Mismatch between input and output." Endless murmured, trying to reconcile the gap.
"Huh?" Neon tilted her head. "Hello? Are you bugging out, Endless? Oh no!"
"I am fine. It is just..." Endless blinked, her violet eyes narrowing as she visibly struggled to process how and what was the difference between how the commander had wielded the blade and its weight.
A review of the schematic revealed that the fabricated blades should be no more than 2 kilograms. In short, roughly 4.5 pounds of weight.
And yet...
"Scanning..." Endless murmured and then picked up the zweihander.
It was heavy. The weight of a proper Nikke weapon. No, heavier than a proper Nikke weapon. Far heavier than a human had any right to carry.
And yet the commander had not just carried it, he had swung it as if it weighed nothing.
"...It does not compute." Endless frowned and swung the blade.
Due to her superior specs, she was able to swing it. But the sheer mass prevented her from fluidly controlling it as her commander had.
"...Lady Enikk. Query."
*Hm? Endless? Did something happen?*
"Please confirm the data."
Endless sent the data and questions she had directly to Enikk.
Neon gasped and said, "You can just talk to Enikk like that?!"
Endless nodded. "Lady Enikk is functionally my mother. My personality matrix is partially derived from her own core AI modules..."
"DOES THAT MEAN YOU HAVE ACCESS TO TOP SECRET WEAPON DESIGNS?!"
Endless blinked and tilted her head. "...Yes?"
Neon laughed and jumped onto Endless's back. "It's official! We're best buddies! Now come on, help me design a bunker buster railgun!"
===
Back in the Ark's Courthouse, Enikk reviewed the data that Endless had sent.
Then she paused and reviewed it again.
Then she blinked and checked the video footage closely, cross-referenced the schematics of the blades that Endless had captured, and then ran the numbers.
"...This does not make sense."
On every metric, it should be impossible.
But in hindsight, it made sense.
Of course it was impossible for a human to cleanly sever Chatterbox's arm off with a sword.
And of course it was impossible for a human to use a Nikke's weapon like Hoopa had with Marian's SMG against the Black Smith.
"Yet here we are." Enikk frowned. "...Is this because of Einkk?"
Since the short chat, Einkk had completely blocked Enikk out of the Simulation Room. Because of that, any questions that Enikk had for her sister were walled off.
That chat itself had led Enikk to countless questions. But now that she saw this, some pieces were making sense.
"...A 'Demon Lord who's on our side.' That was what my sister said." Enikk murmured, mulling it over.
Hoopa was human. Enikk, Andersen, and various staff had confirmed that fact.
...However, his DNA was a bit strange.
There was the fact that his bloodtype was O- Rh-Null. That in itself was strange. Even if it was modified, for health, it would have been better for him to have a normal bloodtype.
As things were, Hoopa would not be able to receive any blood transfusion. There were no recorded individuals on the Ark with Rh-Null. And even if there WERE, for it to be O- Rh-Null made a match near impossible.
That was a primary motive for Enikk to have Endless protect Hoopa.
Unlike most commanders, he was in even more peril. Should he suffer any injury that resulted in blood loss, it would be impossible to transfuse it.
If he had inherited Rh-X from Andersen, then while limited, there would still have been a donor. Moreover, if he possessed Rh-X, there would have been regenerative effects that would forestall any potential injuries.
But...
"...Hm." Enikk floated backwards to sit on her bench and tilted her head, running through her databases. "...This is unprecedented."
Hoopa was clearly human. But he was showing superhuman abilities.
"...Is this a result of inheriting a modified bloodtype? Or is it a result of the anomalous DNA in his X-Chromosome?"
His medical reports clearly indicated that while most of his X-Chromosome was a match for Liliweiss's, there was 2% that was not.
Enikk wanted to place that as the reason why Hoopa could do what he did.
The problem was that the 2% of anomalous DNA was within non-coding regions.
In short, it should have no effect on genetic expression.
"And yet here we are." Enikk murmured.
Hoopa existed. His feats were recorded. And there didn't seem to be a biological or physical explanation for it.
Although there was the fact that his muscular density was above normal metrics, along with his bone density... and though his VO2 max was extraordinarily high...
It was within the realm of belief.
His feats, however, were not.
Enikk furrowed her brow.
If she could, Enikk would have wanted to consult with Andersen about this. Since he was the only living human with Rh-X, she wanted to see if Hoopa's abilities matched anything he knew about.
Unfortunately, the Deputy Chief had already left his duties to Burningum and entered a private and secure location in one of Tetra Line's facilities for his surgeries.
"...Was my sister being literal in saying that she summoned a hero from another world? Or was it metaphorical?"
It bothered Enikk.
Hoopa's abilities were clearly superhuman. Moreover, he was completely unaware of it. No, his 'perception' was refusing to acknowledge the fact that it was off. Instead, it seemed to him that everyone else's commonsense was wrong.
"...Does this matter?"
Enikk ran the numbers. She included this new data in her calculations, projected the impact it could have on the Ark and the war against the Raptures as a whole...
Then she came to a single conclusion.
"Yes, but in the sense that the Ark has a proper hero."
Like the Legendary Commander and the Goddess Squad... this was the advent of a new era.
A human commander who possessed the ability to fight alongside the goddesses of victory.
A knight born in a time when despair seemed closer than ever. Not a knight in shining armor, but in matte gray. One whose equipment had been worn down from constant battle but remained serviceable.
No one knew the truth about Commander Hoopa. Not really.
Since he was a man who normally kept things close to his chest, the only ones who truly knew his depths were the Brave Squad. And since he spent a majority of his time on the Surface, any information about him was through hearsay.
To the public, he was a miraculous commander who showed up out of nowhere and had claimed victory after victory.
And even now...
A news article popped up on Tetra's network. A picture of Hoopa carrying Anis, the latter of which seemed completely flustered but also happy.
As for the headline...
[The Valiant and his Goddess of Victory, celebrating after fierce battles upon the surface.]
"The Valiant..." Enikk hummed. "...I suppose that's a fitting title."