“Kenya? Kenya?”

A voice called out. Who could that be?

What had I been doing?

Did I manage to protect everyone…?

Kenya slowly opened his eyes.

The familiar sight of the cockpit interior.

His blurry vision gradually sharpened, and the white light grew blindingly bright.

“Huh? Me…”

“Kenya, thank goodness… Are you okay? Any injuries? Kenya?”

The communication audio echoed through the cockpit.

This voice—Tanaka? Oh, right. I’d fallen asleep.

“Sorry, Mr. Tanaka. I’m fine. I just dozed off.”

“What a relief! You wouldn’t wake up at all, so I was worried. Come over here and rest. The transport truck’s a bit more comfortable for sleeping.”

Kenya did as instructed, opening the cockpit and slowly climbing down from Takemikazuchi.

He took another look at the machine.

It had scratches here and there, but it stood tall and proud, its white frame as pristine as ever.

“Thanks. I survived because of you.”

Kenya gently stroked the machine’s surface.

Then Tanaka climbed down from the transport truck.

“Good morning—and good work. And thank you, Kenya. You protected everyone.”

“Mr. Tanaka… No, I should be the one thanking you. I’d be dead without you.”

“True… I was pretty reckless coming here, but you really went all out. Honestly…”

Tanaka walked over slowly, patting Kenya’s head with a weary sigh, his white coat stained and his beard unkempt.

“And you’re still just a kid…”

“Isshin said the same thing. So, Mr. Tanaka—what about the others? The Earthguard soldiers? Kaguya?”

“Calm down. Let’s talk for a bit.”

He opened up the transport truck’s cargo bed, making space for them to lie down.

Kenya sat there with Tanaka.

It was nearly midnight, a beautiful night with stars and the moon shining brightly.

“You probably guessed already, but I’m part of the resistance.”

“I figured as much.”

“Yeah. I helped with the tech to get that KOG we captured operational a while back.”

So Isshin had mentioned an insider collaborator earlier—that must’ve been Tanaka.

It made perfect sense to Kenya.

As a leading KOG researcher, Tanaka would know exactly how to bypass security.

“Isshin and the others are probably heading to the Asia Union. No way to contact them, though.”

The Earthguard military controlled all infrastructure, so once you left the capital, communication was impossible.

On the flip side, no contact meant they were far away.

From what he’d heard beforehand, Tanaka figured they’d crossed the sea using his Asia Union connections.

Tanaka himself wasn’t involved in diplomacy and didn’t know the details.

“I see… As long as they’re safe. I should go see them sometime.”

“Yeah. That’s your reason for living, right? Kaguya.”

“!?”

“Heh, you never cut the comms. You kept yelling it in the heat of battle—’protect Kaguya.'”

“Th-that was…”

“You just wanna get all lovey-dovey, huh?”

“Ugh.”

Thinking back, what embarrassingly cheesy lines had he been spouting?

He’d repeated them over and over. His face burned bright red.

“It was cool, Kenya.”

(Stop, my life points hit zero ages ago!)

Tanaka grinned mischievously as he praised him.

“No, really… I respect you. Protecting the one you love with your life on the line like that. And you had the power to pull it off.”

Tanaka’s expression turned sad, lost in some memory.

He gazed at the KOG wreckage still smoldering on the battlefield.

All the Earthguard-made KOGs Kenya had destroyed—over a hundred machines, surrounded by their pilots’ corpses.

“I lost someone too, you know. It was common back then. Happens everywhere. But I couldn’t bear it.”

Kenya imagined it from Tanaka’s words.

Tanaka must have had someone precious taken by the Earthguard military.

Now, he understood that pain all too well.

If Kaguya had been violated in this battle.

If she’d been killed.

He wouldn’t forgive that nation.

Such commonplace hatred flooded the world.

And the empire crushed it all with overwhelming force.

“Enough dark talk. So, how was Takemikazuchi?”

“Amazing! The best machine ever. With this, I could fight as many as they throw at me!”

“Good. When I built it, I thought, ‘Who could even pilot something like this?’ Never dreamed someone could actually master it.”

“Close combat’s my specialty. And… it’s got that romance, you know? Fighting with just a sword.”

“Oh yeah! You get it. I designed it after a Japanese samurai. At full power, it should be unbeatable.”

The two geeked out over the conversation.

Having survived the deadly front lines together, Kenya and Tanaka—already on the same wavelength—bonded even deeper.

“So, Kenya, what now?”

“Now? Haven’t thought about it.”

He threw his hands up in surrender and flopped back onto the transport bed.

The temperature was perfect—blissfully comfortable.

If only the smell of gunpowder wasn’t lingering.

“Me neither… If I go back to the military, they’ll probably kill me. No destination in mind. Maybe head to Asia.”

“I’m probably busted too. Zeke was there, and I’m the only one who can pilot this thing right now… Might get executed if I return.”

Zeke knew Tanaka’s true identity, and he’d likely figured out Kenya’s as well.

“What’s the Asia Union like?”

“Well… I’ve never been, but it’s a coalition of Asian countries. Think nation-based democracy—ring any bells?”

“Democracy? What’s that mean exactly?”

Kenya wasn’t great at studies.

He knew Japan had been a democracy, but Tanaka’s explanation didn’t quite click.

“Haha, not your strong suit? Oh—sorry. At your age, school wasn’t an option…”

Tanaka looked sad, mistaking Kenya’s ignorance for a casualty of war.

Sorry, it’s just me being dumb.

“Simply put, the Asian countries united against the Earthguard Empire’s threat. They handle politics and economy differently per nation, but voting rights are based on population.”

“So when they decide something, all the Asia Union countries vote on it?”

“Pretty much. Technically, it’s their representatives who vote. Could be elected officials, kings—varies by country.”

“Huh…”

Kenya realized how little he knew about this world.

The massive Asia Union conglomerate of nations.

The European Union, another such alliance.

And the Earthguard Empire—the ultimate superpower ruled by one supreme individual.

He’d never cared much about politics in his old world, but here it was life or death.

“So, what now? No plan, but wanna go?”

“Yeah… What should we do?”

Then Kenya’s KOG device rang.

(Only two people know this number.)

Currently, just two knew his contact.

One was Kaguya—unreachable overseas.

Which left…

“Hello…?”

Kenya answered hesitantly.

“Is that Kenya?”

“Yeah… What’s… up?”

“I’m heading your way. To that white machine’s location.”

“…”

He understood exactly what that meant.

The other heroine he’d fought tooth and nail to protect moments ago.

“Let’s talk.”

The ace pilot of the Earthguard Empire, known as the Silver Ice Princess—Reina Silfield—was on her way.