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"Hm." Andersen clenched his fists and placed a hand over his side. "...Weird. It's healing faster than expected."
By all accounts, his body should still be a wreck. But right now he felt... good. In fact, better than good.
It might just be delusion from being bedridden so long, but he almost felt like he was back in his prime.
"...Patience, Andersen." He murmured to himself. "You've waited this long. Don't fuck it up now."
Even if he felt like he was at 100%... and even though he managed to wipe out V.T.C. when he was at 50%, it was important to get all his ducks in a row.
After all, he had his girls to scold and get back together. The Goddesses of Victory needed their Legendary Commander.
Still...
"...My gut's telling me this isn't really a good thing though."
Andersen murmured.
A sense of foreboding.
Good things came in tanden with disaster.
That had always been true for him.
And the fact that he had the good fortune of healing faster...
Andersen leaned back in his bed and closed his eyes. "Hurry up and heal, you stupid body. People need us."
===
'...Odd.'
Mustang- No, Hanson had gone to meet with Syuen to discuss a hypothetical collaboration.
It was a test based on what Commander Hoopa had said.
Dialing up his act, he pretended that since Commander Hoopa was already working with Elysion, Missilis, and Tetra Nikke that they might be suited to have an official collaboration with the Big Three to send aid to him.
Syuen would have rejected it out of hand due to her pride.
But when Hanson went to meet her...
*Interesting. I'll take a look into it and get back to you, Mustang.*
Back in his private room, Hanson took off his glasses and stared into his reflection. "...Mon commandant... No. Commander Hoopa. It seems that your intuition is spot on..."
On the surface, there were no problems. 'Whoever' had taken Syuen's place had done it seamlessly.
But because 'Mustang' had done the same thing, he could notice it.
The very minute discrepencies.
The similar, but distinct nuances in phrasing and vocal cadence.
But more importantly...
"Syuen, you poor child. Death has already come for you, hasn't it?"
...It seems, like before, Hanson was too late.
===
The 5th Arms Depot... or 5th Weapons Depot.
The name of it was a bit iffy.
Sophia's intel had it marked as either, and Burningum's notes called it the 5th Arms Depot.
To be fair, it was also a mess back then so records were mixed up.
Anyway, apparently it had been a key location in the past. The entire facility was filled with Goddessium and could outfit entire squadrons of Nikke.
However, because of that, it was overrun by Raptures early on and constantly guarded.
Apparently, a Nikke squad called the Melee Squad was sent in to clean it out and reclaim it since they were specialized in close quarters, but it was marked as a failure due to internal conflict.
That 'internal conflict' was what Burningum wanted me to sort out.
...Though it had been almost a century since then so who knew what traces remained.
Either way though, I didn't care much about that.
Instead...
"Goddessium? A factory filled with it?" Rapi tilted her head as I explained the target location. "...Yes, that would be a substantial boon to the Ark."
Marian hummed. "...Commander. Wouldn't it be better if we just started the factory up again?"
"That's the plan, Mari." I looked up ahead at the towering factory in the distance. "...The problem is that we have to reclaim it with minimal damage."
Suri sighed and then shifted her gaze towards Laplace and Drake, who were bickering about who had the flashiest poses. "...That will be hard with those two here."
I laughed and said, "Well, I DID arrange the squad like this on purpose."
Rapi paused. "You did, Commander?"
"Mmhm. Think about it." I pointed to myself and said, "I can handle basically any Rapture below Lord-Class without hassle. And I can handle Lord-Class Raptures one-on-one fine enough. My main concern is Tyrant and above."
Marian tilted her head, placing her hand on her chin. "That... is true, Commander. You're surprisingly tough. And you do have quite a bit of stamina..."
Rapi blushed. "E-Excuse me? How would you know that?"
Marian paused. Then she giggled, twirling her silver hair. "Well, Rapi... if you'd like, I could demonstrate with Commander."
"I-I don't think that will be necessary..."
"You don't have to be shy~ We're all in agreement that we're going to share the commander anyway, remember?"
"E-Even so-"
I cleared my throat. "Could we focus?"
Suri nodded. "Yeah. If you're going to talk about getting railed, at least let me NOT be around..."
"That's not... I mean... Ugh." Rapi shook her head. "Commander's right. Let's focus." She turned to look at me and said, "What's the plan then, Commander?"
"Well, it's pretty straightforward. I'm going to head inside with Marian to scout things out, you and Suri are going to keep an eye on the perimeter, and then Laplace and Drake will blast anything that shows up."
Rapi slowly blinked. "That... doesn't sound like much of a plan. It's just commonsense."
I shrugged. "Most plans are commonsense. Besides, we're very much overequipped for this. Can you hear it?"
Marian tilted her head and said, "Hear what, Commander?"
Suri paused. "...Huh. It's quiet."
"Right." I nodded. "It's quiet. Which means..."
"...Any Raptures are either dormant, inactive... or not here." Rapi frowned. "...But are you sure you want to just go in with only Marian, Commander?"
Marian huffed. "What? Do you not think I can protect our commander?"
"It isn't that, Marian. Just..." Rapi frowned. "...A lot can go wrong, quickly. Especially in such enclosed quarters."
"On the contrary, Rapi. I have an advantage you all don't when it comes to places like this."
"Hm?" Rapi looked at me. "And what might that be?"
"I'm light. I can scale walls, railings, and more in a pinch."
"..."
"..."
"..."
I stared at Rapi, Suri, and Marian who had all gone silent. "...What? Did I say something wrong?"
"...No Commander." Rapi sighed. "You're just... insensitive at times, I see."
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"...Don't worry about it. But that sounds fine." Rapi nodded. "To summarize... we should essentially set up a base here while you and Marian check the condition of the arms depot. If it's feasible to restart it, we will. And then we'll proceed from that point onwards. Yes?"
"That's right. And we'll pray that there's no Tyrant-Class Raptures around. Because if there are, that means this whole place is going kaboom. Which would be sad."
Rapi's eyes lit up. "...So that's why you didn't bring Neon or Anis."
"Yep. But anyway." I glanced at the sun, still high in the sky. "We should get going. The factory is huge, and we want to map as much as we can during daylight. Mari. Ready?"
"Yes, Commander!" Marian immediately moved to my side. "Silver Gunner, Marian, ready for duty!"
I paused. "Silver Gunner?"
"Yes!" Marian twirled, showing off her silver hair. "Since I dyed my hair, I thought I'd change my title. It matches, doesn't it?"
"...Huh. Then I guess I'll commit to the bit and call myself Knight then if we're doing codenames."
Rapi looked amused and said, "Am I Red Hood then?"
"Nah. You're Ruby Rose."
"...Ruby Rose?"
"...Let's just go with Ruby. Ruby Rose is a bit on the nose."
"What?"
I laughed and rested my hand on my sword. "Alright. Enough chitchat. Let's go. Operation, start."
===
Rapi watched Commander Hoopa and Marian rush into the arms depot. As she did, she couldn't help but notice something about her commander.
"...Suri."
Suri paused in the middle of laying down decoys. Then she glanced over and said, "Yes, Rapi?"
"...What do you think about the commander's movements?"
"Hm?" Suri glanced over and watched her commander and Marian rush into the building. Then she paused and reached up to adjust her visor. After that, she took them off and rubbed her eyes. "That's... not right. He's not making any noise."
"...Yes." Rapi nodded. "That's what I thought as well."
It was something that Rapi had noticed since they headed off from the Outpost.
Commander Hoopa was wearing platemail. Custom-made and form-fitted, yes. But it was still platemail. No matter how much it was streamlined, it should make SOME noise as he moved.
But it was completely silent. Quieter than if he was wearing cloth.
Suri tilted her head and said, "Does the commander have a noise suppression system built into that armor or something?"
"No. That's just ordinary plate mail. It's made from repurposed Rapture components, but it should be just metal."
"...What the heck?"
"More than that. Look at his footprints. And look at Marian's."
Suri did. Then her eyes widened. "...He's not leaving any? No, he is, but... they're barely there?"
"...Commander made a joke once before to Anis. He said that he could use Qinggong to distribute the weight across his entire body. That such a technique allowed him to carry even us, who should be impossibly heavy for a human to lift."
"...You're thinking it's not a joke?"
"I'm thinking that our Commander has something he isn't aware of. He is human, that's no doubt. But considering he admitted to being a 'test tube baby...'"
Suri frowned. "...He's superhuman then. Peak- No, beyond human potential."
"...Yes. It's concerning." Rapi frowned. "...The Ark doesn't take kindly to threats. And while Commander's feats can be explained away so far by equipment, tactics, or charisma... If it comes out that he can move like this. That he is functionally a Nikke if properly equipped..."
Suri put her visor back on and said, "Well. That's why we're doing all this, right? To make Commander and our squad either indispensible or independent?"
"...I just hope that Deputy Chief Andersen returns soon." Rapi sighed. "It seems like the meeting with Deputy Chief Burningum went well, but Commander needs an unconditional ally."
Suri went back to laying down decoys. As she did, she paused and said, "Rapi."
"Yes, Suri?"
"...Do you think Commander cares about the Ark?"
Rapi froze.
"That..."