"Eh? Misha was taken out by Dobermann?"
Revy, fresh from his absence, settled back into the familiar rhythm of Rhodes Island. He and Eyjafjalla were catching up, and naturally, Misha's name came up. As expected, she'd become a combat operator, assigned temporarily to A4 Reserve Team under Dobermann's strict guidance.
Frostnova's sister, Misha – it seemed the fighting spirit ran in the family. She might not have inherited the Ursus bloodline's brute strength, but her combat talent was undeniable. Dobermann herself had praised it, and in less than a month, Misha had already become a standout in A4. It was said that if she fought seriously, even Dobermann had nearly been injured.
How terrifying talent truly is, Revy thought, a complex tangle of emotions in his chest.
Unlike Eyjafjalla, Misha likely hadn't processed the trauma of Frostnova's death. This relentless training, this almost frantic combat – it was a way to numb herself, to let hatred drive her forward. Otherwise, a girl with no prior military training couldn't have grown so fast. "Talent" alone couldn't explain it.
"Sister Misha is very hardworking... but I always feel that behind her efforts, there might be other intentions..." Eyjafjalla looked at Revy with deep concern. "Brother Revy, you haven't seen her training... she gets herself covered in wounds every time, even fighting simulated battles and sparring robots until she's near death... Even if practice is strenuous, this is a bit too much..."
Eyjafjalla worried for Misha genuinely. As Revy's lover, she actively tried to understand and care for Revy's "sister." For a girl who had only just emerged from her own shadows, Eyjafjalla's empathy was almost entirely for Revy's sake. Misha's attitude, however, remained distant. Polite, but distant. As if her entire life now revolved around just two things: training... and combat.
"Even this mission, we didn't originally plan to bring her... but somehow, Instructor Dobermann changed her mind," Revy acknowledged.
"It's alright... I'll talk to her properly later. After all, 'mental cleansing' is also an 'older brother's' duty," Revy casually brushed over the matter. It wasn't that he didn't care or thought Misha was doing nothing wrong. He simply didn't want Eyjafjalla to worry too much. She, too, had only recently begun to heal from her own past.
"Let's go! To the cafeteria!" Revy suddenly declared, standing up abruptly.
Eyjafjalla gasped in surprise, but her face immediately flushed as Revy took her small hand. Hand-holding wasn't too embarrassing after their recent intimacy, but it was Senior Revy's hand, and that still made her blush and her heart pound.
"Where... are we going?" she murmured.
"Rhodes Island is currently docked in Ursus, so our date might have to wait a bit..." Revy glanced at the navigation on his personal terminal. "However, since we're in Ursus, let me give you a taste of Ursus."
Eyjafjalla's eyes sparkled. She knew how good Revy's cooking was.
"Are you... going to make something delicious?"
"Hmm... let me think..." Revy narrowed his eyes. Theresa's voice, too, echoed in his ear, reminding him of their first Ursus meal together. "Let's try making this—the famous Ursus dish: Borscht (борщ)."
— — — —
"Revy's back, huh?"
Rhodes Island's medical department was, as always, a hub of activity. Today, however, it held a rare gathering: Kal'tsit, Warfarin, Shining, Nightingale, and the newly joined Silence, all seated around a rectangular conference table. Any other medical staff seeing this would be stunned. Besides Silence, each of these five was a critical figure, and Kal'tsit, perpetually busy, rarely wasted time in meetings. Such a meeting was truly exceptional.
"I know... and after he came back, he didn't even resist the physical examination... so we got the latest data," Kal'tsit stated.
"Let me see—" Shining reached for Revy's report. A quick glance, and her breathing hitched. She passed it to Warfarin.
"Tsk tsk tsk... This data is getting more and more abnormal, huh," Warfarin shook her head after scanning the figures. "If you didn't tell me this was a living person, I'd think this thing was a human-shaped Originium Slug—no, even Originium Slugs don't have such a high somatic cell fusion rate, do they?"
Silence remained silent, true to her codename. But her rapidly beating heart and hurried breathing mirrored Shining's, betraying an inner turmoil not reflected on her calm exterior.
(All of this... it's really true!)
(If that man has a way to control Oripathy... then Ifrit, perhaps there's hope!)