He was not taking the Fury Interceptor back with him.
He was leaving it in this world for research.
Honestly, Kain had already been prepared to return directly to his original world. He had not believed that, after punching through the bomb-like energy pack inside that super-extremely giant machine lifeform, the Fury Interceptor would be able to withstand the resulting energy discharge.
Still, he had tried anyway.
At the very least, by the time he pierced it, he had already flown a bit farther away.
And at the very end, he had also used the magicules of this world to deploy a magical defensive barrier.
As for the result, it had actually just barely held.
Because of that, the highly dangerous Great Fraud of the Century that he, White, and the others had been involved in came to a fairly perfect close.
In the blink of an eye, two days had already passed.
Right now, in front of him stood two silver-haired women whose appearances and figures were almost identical. One held a slender white blade, while the other gripped a broad greatsword.
The two of them stood to his left and right, glaring at him like tigers eyeing prey, ready to pounce at any moment.
Just then, a gust of wind swept through, carrying dust with it and instantly making visibility terrible.
But at that exact moment, the slender white blade stabbed forward with savage speed, and Kain stepped back to evade it.
Yet before he had even fully stabilized after that half-step, the sound of air splitting rang out behind him. The greatsword cut through the dust storm and came crashing toward him with enough force to bisect him at the waist.
Clang!
Bang, bang!
After the heavy sound of metal colliding, two more impacts like bodies being struck rang out, and the two figures in YoRHa uniforms were sent flying once more.
This time, neither of them could barely get back up.
The reason he was exchanging blows with members of YoRHa was not because they had been infected by some machine lifeform virus and had lost control while attacking him.
The only reason they were fighting was because the two of them had voluntarily come to ask him for combat experience.
More specifically, experience in how to fight humans.
Even though androids in this world had fought civil wars before, and they had already fought other androids, they believed that kind of combat experience might not actually be useful if they ever had to face real humans.
After all, android-versus-android combat had not involved much prolonged close-quarters fighting over the years. Most of it had been killings with firearms and other ranged weaponry.
And in the past, what they had mostly carried out were assassinations.
So the two of them wanted more experience fighting actual humans, and before he left, they wanted him to act as their instructor and train them hard.
As for why they wanted richer combat experience specifically geared toward dealing with humans, Kain could more or less guess.
On the one hand, it was to deal with the machine lifeforms. Those things were evolving too, and there was no way to avoid future fights against humanoid machine lifeforms. Having more experience in this kind of battle would naturally help when fighting human-shaped machine lifeforms later on.
On the other hand, they were also considering the possibility of going to other worlds in the future. If that happened, they would need to watch out for malicious humans and hoped they could be of help to him.
"I have to say, your hands are a little heavy."
Devola, the older of the twin models, was already treating the two of them again as she let out a small complaint that sounded a little displeased.
Kain knew she was not really complaining.
After spending the last few days with her, he had already figured out that Devola was the sort who spoke sharply but was soft at heart, a classic tsundere.
"When I fought machine lifeforms during previous missions, my body was often damaged to the point it was nearly unusable. Compared to that, this level of injury is... mmph!"
2B, who had been reporting like a machine, had her mouth forcibly pinched shut by Devola before she could finish.
"Things are different now. From this point on, your battles need to take your physical condition into account as much as possible, instead of acting like before, where all you had to do was transfer yourself into a new body."
Devola began lecturing the stubbornly straight-laced 2B again.
To prepare for future battles with the machine lifeforms, especially if they ever deployed that kind of virus field again, the androids were already beginning targeted development of both hardware and software protections.
When that time came, it would effectively mean they only had one life.
If they died, that would truly be the end.
So from now on, androids had to protect their own safety as much as possible in battle and think of themselves as humans with only one life.
"Eh? I'm not done treating you yet, A2."
Normally Popola was very gentle, but when it came to uncooperative patients, she could be firm too.
She immediately pressed A2 back down when she tried to get up again, her face set in stern disapproval.
Really, she had no idea what A2 was in such a hurry for.
"What is it, A2?"
Kain walked over. He could tell A2 seemed to have something to tell him.
"Miss Kuroneko sent the items over."
That made him pause for a moment, then he understood.
He had asked Kuroneko to pack up some of the 2D media from her world, games, manga, anime, novels, and so on, and pick out some good ones for him to kill time with when he was bored.
As for why she had not sent them directly into his storage space, that was because he was currently in A2's world. Kuroneko could only send them to A2 and could not send them straight into his space.
Unless he had already been to Kuroneko's world too.
If that happened, they would be able to share his free-data storage space, and there would no longer be any need to pass things through A2.
And even through A2, it was not possible for her to send items directly from her own space into his.
That part did not work.
She had to take the items out first and then put them back into storage again before they could be sent directly into his space through the free transfer function.
So right now, A2 was planning to take them out directly so he could store them himself, which would also save data-space consumption.
"Give them to me after we get back to the Bunker."
"Understood."
A2 nodded in acknowledgment.
The sandstorm here was strong right now, so if she took them out now, everything would just end up covered in dust.
And "Commander" was also now the title that had been settled on for him.
He was not used to being called "my lord." He had said being called Mr. Kain was fine too, but she felt that would be disrespectful. And they also could not casually say his name out loud, in case the machine lifeforms heard it and used it to lock onto his position.
So in the end, they had settled on calling him Commander.
"Miss Kuroneko wants to…"
A2 then explained that Kuroneko wanted to see whether they could cooperate.
Apparently Kuroneko's world was making the next-generation NieR game, and if possible, she hoped A2's side could take part and provide more source material if they could.
If the game became a huge hit, then perhaps the energy coins on their side would increase even more as well.
"Of course we can cooperate."
"What are you two talking about? I don't get any of it."
Devola's voice cut in. Over the last few days, she had heard all kinds of strange conversations from these people.
"The more you hear, the more you'll understand."
At present, the twins still did not know that he came from another world.
They genuinely believed he was from this world, and genuinely believed that the starship had truly departed carrying the last surviving humans.
But these twins would later be responsible for certain areas of magical research and would become core figures. They would inevitably come into contact with the truth.
So Kain and A2 had not been trying to hide certain parts of their conversations from them. They wanted the twins to gradually start noticing that something was off so that, when the time came, they would be better able to adjust.
"There you go again."
Devola puffed out her lips in displeasure.
"Sis, don't make trouble for the Commander."
These two sisters really ought to have had their identities reversed.
Devola should have been the younger sister, and Popola the older one.
"Commander, that songstress wants to discuss a collaboration with you."
A2's next report made Kain pause.
"Oh?"
The famous originator of the classic moe trait, pink on the outside, black on the inside, wanted to work with him on something?
(End of Chapter)
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