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Syuen's office in the Missilis Industry headquarters.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Syuen kicked over a cabinet and said, "That damned commander...! He thinks he's all that just because he took down some Tyrant-Class Raptures with those scrap buckets...!"
The news report on a nearby television screened continued to play, showing footage of Hoopa running throughout the Ark carrying Anis. Then they replayed footage of him blasting a Grave Digger rapture with coilguns, buying time for his Nikke to close in and finish it off.
Seeing that Syuen let out a strangled scream and swiped all the papers off her desk. "It should be ME! ME on the news! ME making the headlines!"
Nearby, a Nikke with mechanical bunny ears and a tan coat watched Syuen with a blank expression. Rian, Syuen's secretary. "Boss. Throwing a tantrum isn't going to change anything."
"You think I don't know that?!" Syuen rounded on Rian and said, "I'm trying to think here, dammit!"
It wasn't fair. It wasn't right!
That bastard commander was a nobody. NOBODY!
Syuen had checked. He was just some no-name orphan who graduated from the military academy with barely passing scores. He got lucky he didn't die on his first mission.
But...
"Dammit!" Syuen slammed her fist down on her desk again. "I missed the timing...!"
She could have had it.
All she needed was a chance.
A Commander who she could throw away by having Wardress go with him to capture Chatterbox. To prove that her creations had the ability to tackle Rapture threats in a new way. But...
"He even killed the damned Rapture on his own! HOW?!"
That was the most damning part.
Forget the way he threatened her.
In hindsight, Syuen HAD pushed a bit. Just a bit. And the fact that he managed to not only resist the pain from Mihara's sensory sharing but even threaten to do worse to her until Mustang showed up...
Well.
Syuen didn't like the guy, but she could respect that he was competent at least.
He saw a threat, didn't yield, and only let her go when it outweighed holding her hostage.
That Commander Hooper or whatever his name was at least had the gall to follow through on his words, unlike a majority of the other spineless pale lot that called themselves commanders.
But...
"I just don't fucking get it." Syuen stared at the replayed footage of Hoopa running around with Anis. "That armor doesn't look special. It's cold. No circuitry in it at all. And he's human. An elite human, but a human. I pulled his medical reports. So how the fuck is he doing that?"
Rian watched as well and shrugged. "...Maybe he tapped into something innately human that nobody else has?"
Syuen paused and rounded on Rian. She wanted to dismiss it... but considering everything that happened, she didn't. "...Go on."
"Well." Rian hummed and watched the footage. "Take a look at him. He's not forcing anything. Even with that armor. The way he moves is perfectly transferring energy, isn't it?"
Syuen's eyes widened and she shifted her gaze right back on the screen.
It was obvious to her. Syuen was the one who designed Matis's bodies. Body mechanics, muscular-skeletal interactions, force dispersions... all of those were things she could solve in the blink of an eye.
So because of that, she could piece together what Hoopa was doing. But even then...
"...That doesn't make sense."
Syuen paused the footage and played it back. Then she did the mental calculations. "...Even with cybernetics, that shouldn't be possible. No, if it WAS cybernetics, it wouldn't work."
It was smooth. TOO smooth.
Each step that Commander took, every leap, and the strides he took along with the structure he carried as he hugged the Nikke to his chest...
Syuen played it back again, carefully watching the moment that commander shifted his weight.
The angle his foot struck the ground. The shifting weight of the armor and the Nikke. The impact against the terrain. The way the rest of his body moved...
"...What is this?"
Syuen watched it again and again. Then she only came to one conclusion.
That Commander was definitely human. He HAD to be human. Because that completely smooth transfer of kinetic and potential energy couldn't be replicated with Nikke bodies or cybernetics. It was something that synthetic muscles strands, robotics, and mechanisms couldn't achieve just due to the nature of the materials.
And yet...
If he WAS human... that was an even more terrifying thought. Because...
"...Humans can reach this level?" Syuen's eyes lit up.
Potential.
Not just potential, proof.
It wasn't a physique difference... Or if it was, then it wasn't something that couldn't be replicated with some bioengineering.
Instead, it was definitely a technique difference. Biomechanics on an intuitive level that hadn't been explored by any of the Big Three or organizations in the past because they had been struggling to stay afloat in the arms race against the Raptures.
Elysion was focusing on weaponry. More firepower and tactics.
Tetra was focusing on pure specs and subterfuge, getting closer to perfect human imitation.
Missilis...
Syuen had been focusing on innovation. That was what Missilis was known for. The next big step. Like Matis.
So...
While her rivals were focusing on Nikke...
"...What if we raise the standard? What if we make humans stronger?"
Syuen carefully watched that Commander again-
No.
Hoopa.
Yes, his name was Hoopa.
Considering how competent he was, Syuen would at least remember his name.
Commander Hoopa.
A human who moved like a superhuman. A man who dared threaten her. And a commander fighting the war against the Raptures with a blade in hand, up close and personal. Without a shred of fear, but pure resolve.
Syuen laughed. "Rian."
"...Yes, Boss?"
"We need data. Tell Matis that they've been transferred over to Commander Hoopa's squad indefinitely." Syuen kept watching Hoopa's movements on the screen and said, "They've been hanging out in that guy's Outpost already, right? Just make it permanent."
Rian frowned. "...Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Are you questioning me?"
"No, Boss. Just concerned about resource allocation."
Syuen paused. Then she grumbled. "...You think I'm not considering that? My bitchy sister already took Yuni and Mihara. If I don't get Matis out of her reach, she might take them too. I hate it, but at least they'll be untouchable with that guy. Also... as much as he pisses me off... I have a feeling he'll get along with them."
"...Understood. Shall I get going then?"
"Why are you asking that if you already know the answer, Idiot?"
"And the payment?"
"Yes, yes. I'll give you a bonus for this. Just go already!"
"Understood." With that last word, Rian left.
Syuen watched the footage of Hoopa again. Then she walked over to her computer and pulled the full footage of the Brave Squad's fight against the Grave Digger EX at the power station.
She ignored the Nikke. They weren't anything special. Instead, she focused on Hoopa.
"...Is it intuition? Or instinct? No, it's definitely trained..." Syuen mumbled as she tried to reverse engineer how Hoopa operated.
The way he picked up the coilguns without hesitation showed clear familiarity. But the way he aimed...
"Hm?"
Syuen slowed the footage down. Then she realized that Hoopa wasn't aiming. At least, not with his eyes.
"...There."
The Grave Digger charged electricity, preparing its electron beam. Its body was coiled, preparing to blast. And there wasn't a discernable weak spot.
But Hoopa wasn't looking at any particular spot. Instead...
"...He's feeling it?"
Syuen hopped on her desk and watched the footage in slow motion.
Frame zero, an instant before the electron beam was going to be launched.
Frame one, the electron beam was already firing. But in that same frame, the projectiles from the coilgun had already arrived.
It wasn't a reaction. It wasn't a prediction either.
It was like Hoopa already knew the precise timing on when to fire, the effect of his firing, and how it would disrupt the flow of energy, creating a kickback to make the electron beam miss.
No, not 'knew.' Sensed. There wasn't a look of concentration or calculation in his eyes. It was just as simple as someone knowing to blink when a punch was thrown at them.
"Gr...!" Syuen gnashed her teeth and massaged her head. "How the hell is this possible?"
She wanted to say it was some hidden technology. That maybe that bastard of a commander was given a secret weapon by the Deputy Chief or one of the other CEOs.
Syuen knew that Mustang and Ingrid for sure had some secret weapons up their sleeves, so she wanted to say they passed something onto that commander.
But it couldn't be.
This HAD to be all him. It wasn't anyone else's merit. It was all Commander Hoopa's.
But then...
A bolt out of the blue.
Something Syuen didn't want to admit, but at the same time, the only conclusion that made sense. "...Is he a genius? A real one? Not just in combat?"
Syuen quickly pulled up that commander's academic records.
Then she saw his grades, mediocre at best, barely passing at worst. But she also saw his graduation thesis.
"Commander body refinement to further support Nikke deployment...?"
Syuen was skeptical. But considering the results she had seen, she took a look.
Pulling the thesis directly from the records, she started reading.
The thesis itself was straightforward. Due to Raptures being mechanical creatures that operated on algorithms, a commander who was a completely biological being should be capable of inducing error states due to suboptimal actions. Thus, the question: if a commander was on par with a Nikke, at least momentarily, would it lead to Raptures creating an exploitable opening.
The paper itself was poorly written. The supporting evidence completely laughable.
But the underlying theory... refining the human body to its utmost limits. Having faith in adaptation and actively refusing to submit to mechanical measures...
The training methodology was ridiculous, of course. Who in the world had the time to punch a leather-wrapped steel pillar eight hours a day without stopping once? And for a year as well?
"...Well, I can't say that it doesn't work." Syuen mumbled and watched the footage of Hoopa running around with Anis like she was an ordinary young woman. Then there was his footage of firing the coilguns and just absorbing the recoil across his body so smoothly it probably felt to him that there WAS no recoil.
Syuen pursed her lips. "But if he's capable of this, why didn't he-"
Pieces of a puzzle clicking together at once.
Syuen could see it. No, she had lived it.
A mind that saw the world differently. One that was brilliant enough to gain immediate recognition at a young age.
Syuen had bathed in it. Loved it. And as a result, she received expectation after expectation until now if she slipped up once, everything would crash and burn. MISSILIS would crash and burn. And the moment it did, the Ark would be in danger.
That commander... Hoopa was similar. Although Syuen wasn't sure about that guy being a genius in general... at least in terms of combat, he was the real deal. But unlike her, he didn't chase accolades. Instead, he deliberately played coy. Mediocre.
Until just now, when he was certain in his abilities. Until he was untouchable- No. Until he could cut down whoever dared stand in front of him.
Syuen let out a bitter laugh. "You fucker..." She ran a hand through her hair, a wry smile on her face. "No wonder you hated me the moment we met."
A man who wouldn't kneel.
A man who hated people who thought they were superior because he KNEW he was better.
And a man who when pushed would rather kill first than risk being killed. Who ABSOLUTELY would kill his way out of the Ark with his subordinates if backed into a corner.
Just like her.
Syuen rubbed her face with her hands, ignoring the wet warmth running down her cheeks. "Dammit...! Of all the fucking people...!"
It was crumbling.
Her entire world was crumbling.
Public sentiment was slowly turning against Missilis since her lauded Wardress not only failed to capture a Tyrant-Class Rapture, but that same Rapture was slain by a rookie commander.
Yuni and Mihara... both Wardress Nikke had been seized by her damned half-sister because she found a way to 'salvage' them... but knowing that bitch, it just meant that they'd be put to work in some inhumane experiment.
Matis was slowly losing out to Absolute since the latter had successfully reclaimed Heretic fragments while Syuen was putting out the fire that came with Chatterbox's death.
Exotic had gone AWOL, those rust buckets. Completely ignoring her orders and cutting off communication.
And now...
The only person who could have saved her. The only escape route she could have had. The Commander who was probably the only damned person who would genuinely understand...
She had already made him an enemy.
"Dammit...!" Syuen slammed her fists on her desk. "It's always like this! It's always...!"
A dead end.
Her grandfather was long gone.
Her half-sister had been turned to a Nikke and captured in the depths of MMR, twisted into someone Syuen didn't even recognize anymore.
And now she was alone.
Ingrid hated her.
Mustang didn't care for her.
All the deputy chiefs thought she was a spoiled brat who couldn't do anything...
And the Central Government as a whole was just waiting for her to crash and burn so they could slot in a puppet in her place. So they could put Missilis under THEIR control instead of hers.
Syuen slammed her fists again, ignoring the pain and the bruises already forming. Biting her lips, she ignored the tears dripping down. "It's... not fair...!"