Chapter 141: Igis

When Yuki finally returned to land, eleven days had passed since he had left.

Those eleven days had been nothing short of surreal. What had originally been a simple mission to “take a look around” had turned into an infiltration, an investigation, and a demolition operation. In the end, they had even summoned a theatrical-feature-scale army and wiped out a shadow planet of the Interstellar Alliance—along with the underground weapons factory hidden beneath it.

They had certainly made themselves a powerful enemy.

Then again, the Land of Light probably did not care. It was rather like a wolf-hunting squad worrying about whether it might offend the wolves. If anything, the fact that the squad could restrain itself with such extraordinary moral discipline—refusing to exterminate the pack, refusing to seize its territory, and even protecting its habitat—was already more than enough to make the wolves grateful. As for making an enemy of them, how could the wolves possibly dare?

At least, not openly.

By the time Yuki reached this thought, the yacht had finally come ashore. It had tossed the three of them about for more than half an hour, leaving them all listless. When they emerged from the cabin, their legs were unsteady, and the last person to climb out of the cockpit was Homare Soya.

Tregear had indeed kicked him hard enough to break two ribs, but rib fractures were not exactly something that could be treated. The doctor’s instructions had amounted to no more than getting plenty of rest and avoiding strenuous exercise. Hospitalization was unnecessary, so they had not let him occupy a bed.

Since he had nothing better to do, Homare had received an order from the captain the moment he returned to the dormitory: he was to learn how to operate a yacht. After five days, he had mastered the basics—just enough to make a last-minute effort—and today he had driven the yacht out to pick them up.

Once he had successfully brought the yacht alongside the pier and shut off the engine, Homare finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After making a guest appearance as captain, Homare continued his guest appearance as chauffeur, driving the three of them to the temporary headquarters building in the suburbs. Today was a workday for the construction crew. The site lay right beside the headquarters, and clouds of dust filled the air while bangs and clatter rang out in lively succession.

The group fled into the building with dust coating their hair and faces. There, Yuki saw several large characters pasted conspicuously across the wall behind the empty reception desk:

“External Affairs Guard and Investigation Special Team”

Beneath it was a line of English:

“External Affairs Guard and Investigation Special”

Yuki: “...”

Seeing Yuki’s stunned expression, Homare was very pleased. He happily patted Yuki on the shoulder and said, “It’s EGIS! Did you notice? This is EGIS too!”

Of course he had noticed! Yuki’s shoulder was throbbing with pain. How could he possibly have missed it when the initials E, G, I, and S had all been marked in red?

Wait...?

Yuki seemed to understand something. He turned to Homare and asked, “Senior Homare, could it be...?”

Homare nodded. “That’s right. The new team name was chosen by President Sasaki—or, well, she should be called Deputy Captain Sasaki now! Deputy Captain Sasaki came up with it. She submitted it to the captain, and the captain apparently failed to notice that the deputy had smuggled in her own agenda. She immediately praised it as a wonderful and highly appropriate name, then approved it on the spot.”

“Oh, and Marina took her exam the day before yesterday. She passed without a hitch, so today is her first day on duty.”

So that was how it was. Yuki nodded in understanding. With himself, Homare, Marina, and President Sasaki, was this not the complete EGIS team?

As Homare continued explaining, the three of them arrived at the office area on the third floor. It was already completely different from how it had looked more than ten days ago. The workstations and conference rooms had been finished, and apart from the fact that it was still early and there were only a few people in the expansive open-plan office, everything looked highly professional.

It was Marina’s first day on duty, so she had arrived a little early and was already testing the screens. When she saw them approach, her eyes lit up. She raised a hand in greeting.

“Morning, Homare. Oh—Yuki! Long time no see!”

Yuki raised a hand in return and introduced Riku and Pega to Marina. The two sides exchanged greetings.

Pega was surprised to discover that the young woman in front of him was not at all startled by his distinctly nonhuman appearance. Instead, she seemed to be thinking, So this is what a child from Planet Pegassa looks like?

Just as Yuki had said, this was a world where humans and aliens lived together. It truly was something special.

Riku and Pega had seats of their own here as well—two adjacent workstations placed side by side, arranged by the captain the day before they departed. They located their seats by matching the numbers. It was obvious that this was the first time either boy had sat at a workstation, and both looked excited yet awkward, unsure what to do now that they had nothing in particular to occupy them.

While some of them idly chatted and others stared blankly into space, a commotion suddenly erupted at the entrance.

Everyone turned toward the noise and saw three people entering—or, more accurately, one person carrying another on each shoulder. The two being carried looked extremely weak, and the one bearing them staggered into the room.

“What happened?”

The situation sent everyone leaping to their feet as they hurried over.

Riku recognized Zero’s human form at a glance. He simply did not know what to call him. What if Zero was still concealing his identity? If Riku blurted out “Zero,” he might ruin everything.

“Shin, what happened? These two...”

As Yuki spoke, inspiration flashed through his mind, and he instantly recognized the pair. He had seen their photographs in the newspapers: the married researchers from the space station, Ren Kuto and Nana Kuto.

Riku quietly made a note of the fact that Zero’s current alias was Shin. He could simply use that name later.

Homare pushed through the crowd and entered. The moment he saw the situation, he reached for his communicator.

“Are they injured? The medical team is in the building next door—they moved in the day before yesterday. I’ll call them over right away...”

The man hanging over Zero’s right shoulder raised a hand to stop him. It was Ren Kuto.

“No need. It’s fine, it’s fine. We’re not injured. We’re just exhausted and couldn’t walk any farther.”

Ren waved his hand. His voice still sounded extremely weak, but there were indeed no visible external injuries. As he moved, Yuki noticed that both men had a gleaming silver metal object tucked behind their waists.

With everyone lending a hand, they settled the two men onto a pair of camp beds. Homare was still anxiously asking whether they had been hurt anywhere and whether they needed any medicine or medical supplies. At the same time, Fuuma’s little sprite hopped out and began chattering away, watching the pair with concern.

Yuki took the opportunity to pull Zero and Riku away. Pega followed when he saw what was happening, and the four of them crouched down at the quiet end of the corridor outside the office area for a private discussion.

“Zero, tell us what happened,” Yuki asked in a lowered voice.

Riku silently noted that Zero’s identity was already an open secret with Yuki. There was no need to beat around the bush—he could just call him Zero.

Zero glanced toward the entrance, thought for a moment, and began to explain.

“There’s a space exploration program run by the academy. A week ago, they launched a carrier rocket.”

At that, Yuki’s eyelid twitched involuntarily. He had truly had enough of rocket launches. What had gone wrong this time? Had they shot down another communications satellite?

The rocket seemed to protest: I’m a carrier rocket, not a missile. Why do you keep making me shoot this down and that down?

“The original plan was for the carrier rocket to fly beyond the Solar System and launch a probe toward an extragalactic galaxy. Everything went smoothly at first. But when the rocket reached the vicinity of Pluto’s orbit, it inexplicably lost contact with the ground control center.”