Mmmmkay. So, I've been playing AC5 and Zero lately, so I got a bit inspired to write a fanfic about it. Although my head is a bit loopy, and had to throw in the aliens. And, like every first chapter, there isn't much for me to put in the Author Notes, so here is chapter 1.

Disclaimer: if I mentioned anything that doesn't belong to me, I disclaim it.

"BREAK RIGHT! NOW GODDAMNIT!" Nagase was screaming at the top of her lungs at me, warning me of the laser that was hunting my plane relentlessly. I released some chaff then broke into a sharp right turn.

My beloved ADF-01 Falken seemed to groan underneath the pressure, but I kept it moving. I spared a second to glance at my wingmen, and our allied forces. Snow and Grimm were already brought down, along with at least 48 allied planes. All that was left in the sky was me, Nagase, and the hundreds of enemy planes hunting us. One of their fighters began chasing me, joining its 3 brethren. "For god's sake..." The new fighter released its missile, which was identified as an AM-4 Missile. The Anti-Matter core was lethal enough to take down a plane if it got a direct hit. I released the remainder of my chaff, which was enough to detonate the missile as its owner flew into the explosion. "Nagase! Let's go, we can't take on these guys!"

There was silence for a moment, then I heard her voice. It seemed to be laced with her dying will, as if she was about to die. "Blaze... both of us know I'm not good enough to escape them. I've already been hit by their particle cannon. I just wanted to say one more time, before I die... I love you."

As her final words escaped her lips, her plane crossed in front of mine. She had removed her mask, so for a moment I saw her face. Then, it was all gone.

World War 3, Demons and Aliens

Chapter 1

Recall

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

(10 years ago...)

We had just come back from destroying the SOLG, the massive satellite now existing as memory. When we landed, there was a mob of people, waiting for us to return. When we exited, the world began to celebrate. People rushed to greet us, asking if we were okay, if we needed anything, why Nagase was so close to me. I looked at her, and she was indeed very close. One girl loudly said, "THEY'RE GONNA GET MARRIED!"

This resulted in a ruckus of fan girl screams, to which I motioned to Snow to handle."Got it boss! LADIES! BACK AWAY FROM THE LOVELY COUPLE!" The entire crowd began their screams of approval. I scowled at Snow, to which he responded, "It's only the truth sir."

We broke through the crowd, running and eventually walking along the streets of Oured. Grimm and Snow were walking on either side of Nagase and I, who were uncomfortably close. Grimm spoke up, "You know, Snow's right. You two would make a good couple."

"HANS ARCHER GRIMM!" Nagase gave him a playful shove, then began walking faster. "Come on, the truck won't come to pick us up!"

I matched her strides, catching up to her. "Oh come on Kei, you know that the truck is coming for us!"

We had been told that a cargo truck would pick us up after our mission. Grimm pointed out, "Well here it comes." Indeed, a truck was coming towards us, ready to drive us to base. We drove back, entirely unaware of the war we caused by ending one. In its orbit, SOLG had managed to pick up an alien species, which had stayed inside it for who-knows-how-long. When the nuclear explosion annihilated the SOLG, the creature survived, now laden with radioactive D.N.A. It was reduced into almost nothing, and spread around the globe, where, over a few years, it had grown into something much worse than anything Strangereal had ever seen.

/\\/\\/\\/\\

(3 years later...)

We've all settled down, everything was calm for once in our lives. Our flight kept in close touch with each other even after the war, constantly inviting each other over for a gathering of some sort. Although we aren't engaged, Nagase and I have been together almost every day. Snow found himself a well-paying job as a cashier, in a weapons store. Grimm found a job at a restaurant, as a cook. He also found himself a nice little lady, who's going to college and working as a part time waitress. Nagase was a college teacher, it turns out she's a math genius, along with having skills in art and music. My job was a computer programmer for a large bank, basically all the inside jobs of a computer. I felt like flying today, like going up in my personal plane. Even after the war, I still loved to fly. Dog fighting was just as fun, when I wasn't forced to kill the person, so I decided after breakfast I would go flying. It was early morning, around 6:00am. I was preparing my breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs and hash browns and coffee when the house phone suddenly rang. I picked it up and answered, "Hello, Kyo Higashi here."

From the other side of the telephone, a monotonous voice began stating pieces of private information from my life. "Blaze, this is the OADF, we need you to meet us at this point in exactly 2 hours. If you choose to disobey we will bring you by force."

I didn't even have time to reply. The person, or robot, hung up on me after giving me a location, and just before I could object. I finished my breakfast in 5 minutes, not bothering to wash the dishes before I headed upstairs. I took another 5 minutes to shower, and 2 to change into something presentable. I was ready to leave the house by 6:14am. I bolted out of the door and hopped into my Honda, going top speed towards my destination. I don't know why, but I felt that this was about to be incredibly important. Why am I feeling like this... Oh well. It's best if I just get there.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

The location that they had given me was nothing more than a run down, old warehouse. Well, a maze of old warehouses. Arrows doodled on pieces of paper showed me where to go, and I followed them until they got to a point where it stopped. Another paper was found there, which I read aloud. "Wait here for the rest of your team. When they are all assembled we will reveal ourselves." I discarded the note and sat down, waiting for the next member to arrive. The first one to appear was none other than Nagase. I saw her, and immediately said, "Nagase!"

She faced me and responded, "Kyo!" She ran up to me and gave me a tight hug. "Kyo... what's going on? A bunch of men showed up and told me to be here! Did they do that to you?"

"No, I just got a call, and they used my callsign, Blaze, as my name. Are Grimm and Snow with you?"

She shook her head. "No, I haven't seen them lately. I'm guessing you haven't?"

"Nope, there was a note here saying to wait for them, so I guess that's what we do." The two of us waited for an indefinite amount of time, just chatting idly and worriedly.

In a hidden location, two men that were watching us whispered to each other. The first said, "These two are the Razgriz 1 and 2?"

"Yes."

"They seem to have gotten close, haven't they?"

The other one merely nodded then checked his watch. "It's almost time. The retrieval squad should be almost here."

As he said it, Grimm and Snow were brought into the maze, calmly but surrounded. When they caught sight of us, they broke free of the group that surrounded them and made their way to us. "Kyo! " Grimm exclaimed. He and Snow rushed to us, both of them dressed in simple house clothing.

Kei started to ask them what they were doing in those clothes, when one of the old house doors creaked open. Inside, a white man with a bowler hat stood with a cane in hand. "Hello, Razgriz. Please, come inside."

He didn't bother to wait for us as he disappeared into the shadows. Our group reluctantly stepped in, ready to fight if the moment called for it. Suddenly, the door slammed shut, and lights flooded the entire building. The place turned out not to be an abandoned structure, but a makeshift conference room, complete with fold up tables and plastic chairs. I looked at the men and women that stood around. The bowler hat man faced us, beside a black man, with a matching hat, also facing us. 2 men with lab coats were looking over some papers, furiously discussing something silently. A single woman was at the table already, her face obscured by a hood, which hid her entire head. She took a sip of coffee, still not facing us. The black man greeted us with a reassuring smile, "Hi! My name's Andre, pleasure to meet you. Come! Have a seat! We need to talk anyways."

None of our group moved. The white man said, "Its strongly recommended you do. The Air Force has called you all for a reason."

Understanding his point, I slowly took a seat, and the rest followed. I eyed each one of them, wondering what they wanted. "What do you want?"

"Well, it seems there will be no foreplay. Well then, we need you. The world is in threat of yet another war, worse than anything experienced before." Slowly, he took off his hat, revealing the symbol of a legend, the one that destroyed the defense-turned-super weapon Megalith. The blue ribbon of Mobius One was tattooed into his bald skull. "Please."

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\

We were transported to another base, this time much more elaborate, and clean. Three tanned women approached my squad mates, and each was given instruction to follow the escorts to their temporary living quarters. I was told to follow the bald man, who I thought to be someone else. Before leaving, Nagase run up to me and embraced me tightly. "Be safe Kyo. Please."

I hugged her back then whispered, "I will, I promise." Our squad dispersed, going to our destined locations. I asked, "Where am I going?"

"You will be briefed on everything that we've found. You will then discuss the situation with your squad, who are being informed of this as well." We weaved through a sea of people, navigating an endless maze of a base.

"And are you Mo-"

"No. Now shut up, we're at the conference." After opening the door, he cleared his throat loudly, drawing the attention of the room. "I've brought Blaze. We can begin."

I took a seat at a round table, completely devoid of people other than me, baldie, the hooded woman from before, and 3 others. Mr. Bald man said, "Blaze, do you believe in aliens?"

The question was so unexpected, I wasn't sure if I heard it correctly. "W-what? Aliens?"

"Yes. Do you, or do you not?"

"Well," I went with my normal answer, "Yea, I mean, the universe is pretty big right?" The woman wrote something down, and as she finished, I asked, "Can I get your names? I don't want to speak without knowing who I'm talking to."

"You will know the names as necessary. Allow me to introduce myself. I, am Ronove Ciavollo. Continuing, you believe they exist. Now do you believe that they are here, on earth, prepared for war."

"Uh..." Again, I was dumbfounded. "Well, not without proof. And some seriously good proof."

A scientist with short cropped hair threw a stack of pictures in front of me. Ronove continued, "These are undeniable photographs of an alien race found here. The earliest of the creatures were sighted shortly after the SOLG's destruction."

The creature in the photo was definitely not human. All of the pictures depicted a humanoid being, with 3 fingers on each hand, and containing a backwards joint in the legs, similar to that of a dog's hind legs. The head was ovular, containing 2 glowing eyes, the color varying. It had no visible mouth, and from the base of the head sprouted a number of tentacles. In one photo, the alien stood next to a species of tree that bore fruit when it was 12 feet tall. The alien was able to reach the fruit without climbing. Another one was taken near the Grand Canyon, where it showed a blurry figure, thought to be one of the aliens. Ronove said, "That isn't all. Watch."

He loaded a disk into a projector, and a shaky video came up.

The video taker's voice was feminine, showing clear signs of worry. The video was in Africa, where a pride of lions faced off with a single alien. "O-okay, this is THE most fucked up thing I've seen. This... thing, it's taking down whatever the hell

Challenges it! Currently, 5 lionesses are combating the creature, with 2 already injured."

As the alien was attacked by all 5 beasts, the sound and video were cut off mysteriously, and the next clip started. This time, it was an African Elephant getting ready to charge at one of the aliens. At full speed, it ran towards the creature, ready to impale it with its massive tusks. Instead however, the elephant was picked up by its tusks, thrown, and then brutally murdered. There was no audio for this video. After recovering from the shock of the video, I said, "Okay. So let's assume that this is all real, none of it fake. How does this concern me and my squad? We flew planes, we never fought on the ground. Except Nagase, but that wasn't full on fighting."

"I thought you'd ask that." Ronove smiled and pressed a button on the projector. A video taken from the inside of a fighter jet implied that the pilot was fleeing from something. The audio on this was messy, but clear enough to be understood. "SHIT! DAMNIT, Command! I need some help here! SOMETHING is chasing me down!"

"This is Air Command, please state the nature of your emergency."

"Some sort of fighter jet is chasing me down! It's unlike ANYTHING we've seen!" A jet yellow light streamed over the top of the canopy, barely missing the jet itself. "IT JUST SHOT A LASER AT ME!"

Suddenly, the command seemed much more into the emergency. "What plane is it? Is it the ADF-01 Falken? Or the ADFX-01 Morgan?"

"No sir! It doesn't seem to have either one of those designs! It has more powerful weapons as well!" The room became quiet as the premonition of the pilot's demise passed over us. There was a moment in the video where the camera panned up, to see the shape of the enemy plane. The next moment, the video ended."

The clip ended, and Ronove said, "You see why we need you? We need our aces back, to fight against these things. There is no doubt that they are ready to exterminate us all. They've already opened fire on anything that crosses their path."

I ran a hand through my hair, which was covered in panic-induced stress. "Hold up. This is waaay too much for me to take in. Can I sleep on it?"

The hooded woman looked at Ronove, who said, "Very well. It's just about time to sleep. You will remain here, until you decide whether to help us or not."

I was escorted out by a woman similar to those that helped by squad. We weaved through the people again, stopped in front of an elevator. "Take this elevator to the 7th floor. The 7th door to your right will be your room. The rooms adjacent to yours are your squad mates."

She left without saying anything else, so I went into the elevator, but stopped when I saw the person inside. "Nagase?"

"Kyo!" She seemed to be stepping out of the elevator, but went back inside after seeing I was going to enter. "I was just looking for you!"

"I was headed to my room. Did they tell about the alien things?"

Our floor was no different than a hotel corridor, and we went to my room, also hotel room style. "Yea, they told me about it. They said everyone of us were told, but we were separated."

"Were you really in your room?"

"Uh... yes? Why?"

"They told me you were, but I was in a large conference room. With a bunch of creepy evidence that all this is real." I sighed and laid down on my bed, completely stunned by what was going on. "And I thought we would be long gone from war. After the all that fighting, there's still something out to kill us."

"But this time, the enemy isn't a human." She sat down on beside me, then lied down as well. She embraced me from behind, her warm body pressed against my cold shell. "Don't worry. If you choose to take up the request, I'll be with you."

Her words comforted me enough to feel calm about the situation, when I looked at the clock. It was well past 11pm already. "Hey Nagase?" I broke from her grasp to find she was already asleep, serenely in bliss. "Oh well." I let myself fall asleep. It wasn't the first time we've slept together.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

The next day, I woke up to find Nagase missing from behind me. I had assumed that she left sometime while I was sleep to get to her room, so I went to my bathroom to wash up before seeing anybody. What surprised me was that Nagase hadn't left the room just yet. "FUCK. NAGASE?" I had entered the bathroom thinking she was in hers, but she was just exiting the shower, not yet covered by a towel.

I literally jumped out of my skin because of the... unexpected sight. She screamed when she realized I had seen her in the nude, and curled herself into a ball, covering her front side. "GET OUT! NOW!" She threw the soap at me, followed by the conditioner.

I wasted no time running hell away from there. I slammed the door shut, then froze, coming to terms with myself that after years of knowing Kei Nagase, being one of her best and closest friend, I had seen her most intimate parts. "I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die." I lied down on the bed again, trying to burn the image out of my mind.

She came out of the bathroom wearing a towel, her hair still wet. "It's free now..." I slowly dragged myself off the bed, too shy to look up for fear that they were exposed. I could tell she was as embarrassed as I was, so I took a quick shower and changed in the bathroom. While I was there, she was dressing, and I had received a call. She answered the phone on my behalf. "Kei Nagase."

"Kei? What are you doing in Kyo's room?"

She thought back on how the whole thing started, from the meeting, to inadvertently falling asleep together. "Uhh... we were Uhh..."

Even without seeing him, it was obvious he was smiling to himself. He chuckled through the phone line, then said, "Okay. I understand. Just tell Blaze to be downstairs in an hour."

"Hey! Wait! HEY! We didn-" The connection was severed prematurely, just as I exited the bathroom. She turned to greet me, then stopped as she saw half of me uncovered by a towel. She raised an eyebrow and continued staring.

"Nagase?"

I snapped my fingers to jog her attention, then she remembered what she was supposed to do. "Oh uh... they want you downstairs." We were probably thinking of the same thing, because she blushed and barely smiled as she turned away from me. "Go ahead, change. I won't look."

I did as was told, then we both went downstairs to the room I was in last night. An awkward aura possessed us, and was obvious to the other members inside the room. Ronove saw us then instructed us to sit. "Ah, good. I trust you two had a good night, and thought about our request."

Nagase and I looked at each other, then nodded. "We'll take it. On a few conditions."

The hooded woman from before now had her hood down, but wore shades which concealed her eyes. For the first time, she spoke to me. "What conditions?" Her voice was clear, commanding, and attractive.

"First, I want to know why Ronove has the Mobius ribbon, tattooed on his head. And where Mobius 1 is."

Nagase remained silent, for she had only one request, but that was awkward to ask at the moment. Ronove removed his hat, revealing the tattoo. "Blaze, the reason for the tattoo, is because I am Mobius 2."

"So do you know where Mobius 1 is?"

"Sadly, no. Listen, I shall explain later, but for now, let's get to our main war base."

We were ushered out of the room, but before we were gone I asked, "What about Snow and Grimm?"

"They rejected. They are safe, and will find themselves at home with no recollection of this." Nagase and I were then forced asleep, via opium.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

We awoke in the back of a car, Nagase and I leaning heavily on each other. Although we did have some slight feelings for each other, it was still awkward when we showed it publicly. I woke up first, finding my head on hers. She was adorable asleep. I leaned forward to ask where we were going, inadvertently waking up my companion. "Hey driver! Where we headed!"

"That is classified."

"How long have we been out?"

"Unknown."

I sat back down and mumbled, "Not much to talk with... Oh hi Kei."

"Hi..."

She seemed worried about something, which I was also. Grimm and Snow had both declined, leaving only Nagase and I in the squad. "It'll be fine. They'll probably replace them with some other pilots."

I put an arm around her, hoping she wouldn't cry. "Mhm. At least... at least I've got you."

I smiled at that, and we waited for our ride to end, chatting idly about whatever was on mind. "Although, it does worry me about who they choose. I don't want them to be pushy. Or former squad leaders. Horrible to get along with."

We laughed together, even though it was true. Before they were official pilots, Bartlett and his trainees flew with 2 other allied squads. Bartlett and the other two flight leads ended up in a dogfight of sorts. "Hey, at least Bartlett won."

"True." Just then, the car stopped, and the driver exited. "I guess that's our queue to leave?" I tried to open the door on my side, and to my surprise there wasn't a lock. Or a handle. "Nagase, can you open your door?"

She tried, but found the same problem I did. "Nope, there isn't a handle on it. You think the driver's gonna open it for us?"

As she said it, the door was opened, by none other than Ronove. "Not the driver anyways."

Nagase smiled, to my dismay. I didn't necessarily trust this guy, but he was the key to get me back in the air. Sure we've settled down. That doesn't mean I kind of wanted to get back in action. I wasn't as anti-war as Nagase thought I was, I accept it if not embrace it. "Hey Ronove."

"Hello Blaze, Edge. Follow me, we'll give you a quick physical and review, and we'll let you choose two planes each. One main and one back up. Free up to 80,000."

Nagase's jaw dropped, as well as mine. She said, up to 80,000?"

"Erm, sorry. My mistake. 8,000 is what I meant." Our excitement died completely, with 8,000, you can barely afford an F-5E, never mind an F/A-22 and a YF-23A. "I know, you'll hate having to use those piece of crap planes, so we've taken the liberty of supplying each of you with the plane you flew in the SOLG mission. They're waiting in hangar 6-C."

Nagase and I regained our excitement, knowing we'd be able to fly our Raptor and Widow. Just as we were about to head off into the medical area, a huge explosion rocked the entire base. "The hell was that?"

Ronove had a look of terror, which meant it wasn't good. "Come. We'll need you to be safe. If it's what I think it is, we don't need you two to get in the way." We were led to a command tower, which, ironically, wasn't all too safe. "What's going on and who's flying?"

One of the command workers said, "Four Scouts on a bombing run! Pilots in the air, Shaun, Mark, Basil, Reina, Mishkva, and Lussuria, callsigns Blacky, Whitey, Spicy, Shorty, Quickie, and Lambda."

"LAMBDA? WHAT'S SHE DOING?"

I asked, "What? Lussuria isn't supposed to be flying?"

"Not supposed to! She's going through some stuff, and she isn't supposed to fly!" As he was talking, 2 allied fighters fell.

"There goes Basil and Mark."

"Damn... Blaze, w- Blaze?"

He and Kei looked at my former position, finding wind and an open door. Nagase thought to herself. That guy...

/\\/\/\\/\\/\\/\\

I rolled behind a pillar of something, dodging stray bullets that veered towards me. 6-C, 6-C... where is it... I continued to run, checking the hangars as I passed them. "4a... 4c... 5a... 6c!" I tried to open the door, which was locked. "Manual override then." Above me, a shining blue ball dropped from one of the enemy 'scouts'. It seemed to be a bomb, but before it fell too long, it broke into 4 needle-like forms. Three of them chased the remaining 4 pilots, and 1 flew towards me. "Perfect..."

I got ready to jump, planning to jump and let the missile break the door for me. It approached, I bent my legs, and jumped, the missile missing by just an inch. It tore through the metal door easily, leaving a hold that was large enough for me to enter. I climbed in, but there was quite the problem. "Oh for the sake of god, you're kidding me." My plane was indeed in the hangar, as well as Nagase's. But there was one hangar door, and the Black Widow was parked in front of my Raptor. "Seriously..." I could fly the YF-23A, but I wouldn't perform as well compared to my F/A-22.

It would take too long and be too risky if I drove her plane outside to make way for mine. I was in a bind at the moment, if Nagase hadn't showed up just in time. "Need some help there?" She was standing in the doorway, already in her flight suit, and carrying a spare. "Here, you'll need one if you're gonna be flying."

She tossed me the clothing, then she climbed up into her plane, gearing everything up. I quickly stripped and changed, but couldn't find my helmet. "Nagase where's the helmet!" She pointed towards the cockpit of my plane, indicating that it was there. I took the honors of opening the hangar doors, jumped into my jet, then we both taxied onto the runway.

In her plane, Nagase was running the standard takeoff checklist. "Okay, what's to check... Fuel, I think this is enough, carburetor heat off, flaps up and checking visually... Hey Blaze? Blaze?"

I didn't want to wait for her to takeoff, so I turned my plane the other way, and against better judgment I took off. Backwards."WAAAHHOOOO!1 NAGASE! I'm flying already by the way."

She looked up, then cursed at me for being a bit careless. Even though she knew perfectly well that I had already checked everything. "Stop giving me heart attack every time you do that! Geezus Kyo..." She started to accelerate, eventually taking off and joining me in the sky. My plane wasn't fully armed, with only one missile and a 75% supply of bullets. I was currently chasing one of the enemy fighters, who was on the tail of callsign Shorty. "Hey Shorty! I got this guy for ya!"

He replied, "Thank you uh... BLAZE?" He ran off, well flew off, leaving me and the alien craft to our own.

"Let's dance." I fired my thrusters, turning sharply to the left. The enemy fired on me, forcing me to dodge. I sprayed a few bullets in its direction, none of which collided. "Good pilot..."

I pulled up beside it, trying to look at the pilot inside. Sadly, the cockpit was completely sealed off. Either it was one way, or it used the COFFIN system. Through the radio, Ronove shouted at me, "HEY! Blaze! Help out Lambda! She's having a hard time over there."

"I got it." Nagase flew to her assistance, releasing a missile at the enemy ship.

As expected, the missile was dodged, and their fight continued. As was mine. I was still behind the enemy, unwilling to give up my position. I let loose a flurry of bullets, nearly emptying the supply. "Hey it hit!" I had nicked the engine-like part of the enemy plane, which was now trailing smoke. "Time to finish the thing..." I continued the chase, eventually bringing down the plane in a mess of bullets. Ronove was astonished at how easily it was taken down, considering that I haven't fought in the sky for a while. Two fighters pulled away from the fight, leaving the one that was chasing Lambda and Nagase. Wait a minute, wasn't she chasing?

"BLAZE HELP ME OUT HERE!" Lambda was in trouble, and Nagase was trying to give her as much cover as possible. "HELP OUT YOUR GIRLFRIEND OVER HERE!"

I sighed over the radio but agreed anyways. "Blaze, engaging. Hold on Lambda, Edge, I'm coming." I hit the throttle of my plane, speeding towards the obstruction. It immediately shifted its focus on me, which was good for those two, but not all that great for me. One of the blue plasma ball things dropped from it, and once again broke into 4 needle-like shapes. All four of them chased me, forcing me to take the defensive. I released all of my remaining chaff, destroying a single missile in the process.

I tried one of my older techniques, which involved a wall, and mass acceleration and deceleration. The missiles were gaining on me, so I had to make it quick. A few flares were dropped to buy me some time, also destroying another missile. The final two were just about to hit me, and there was no mountain or wall for me to drive them into. My flares and chaff were all gone, and my fuel reserves weren't enough to continue dog fighting. I started sweating from the pressure of possibly being shot down, here and now. "You're a nutcase Blaze." Nagase had snuck up behind the craft, then destroyed it with two sidewinders. She pulled up alongside me, then released a good amount of flare and chaff, to distract the missiles. They detonated far enough from us, which meant we had won this battle. "You alive in there Blaze?"

Ronove didn't allow me to talk, as he went into Thunderhead mode. "Skies are clear of hostiles. Razgriz, Lambda, feel free to land." We landed, Lambda going first.

When we were on the ground, she thanked us both then tried to leave, but I stopped her from walking away so quickly. "Hold on, are you...?"

"The hooded woman from before? Yes." She was still wearing her helmet, so her face was STILL a mystery to me. "Thanks for helping me."

Then she ran off. I found Nagase next to me, who said, "She's a good pilot. But she's still a bit shy around new people."

"How would you know that..." She gave me a playful shove, then we walked back into the base, where we met an unexpected face.