Falcon of Tekkadan
Chapter 46: For Whom?
Kenji couldn't believe what he had just seen, Julieta Juris made Shino miss his shot, and now Shino is...
"Shino!" Kenji yelled. "I need to get him. Full throttle!"
Phoenix immediately fired all its thrusters to gain enough speed to get to the remains of Flauros. Once there, Kenji grabbed the remaining part of the Mobile Suit then fired his second homing missile barrage at Rustal's flagship as a distraction to buy himself enough time to escape with Shino. It worked; the ship fired its countermeasures at the missiles before it got a chance to target Phoenix.
"Isaribi! Come in, Isaribi! I have Shino! I repeat. I have Shino! Making my way back right now!" Kenji said.
Orga answered first. "Thanks Kenji..."
Eugene answered soon after. "The Hotarubi's timer is about to go off soon, let's get the heck out of here, now!"
"Roger that!" Kenji said.
Tekkadan started to make their escape, even Mikazuki had to fall back, but at least he managed to get Julieta first. The Hotarubi detonated with a nano-mirror chaff cloud, further distracting the Arianrhod fleet as the entire revolutionary fleet began a full retreat from the Earth Sphere. During the retreat, Derma Altland had gotten hit with a projectile, injuring him, a few Tekkadan members were killed, even McGillis' second in command Isurugi was killed by Gaelio to give McGillis a chance to escape. Kenji fired his last homing missile barrage at the pursuing Arianrhod Mobile Suits before going to the Isaribi with Flauros' remains, with Shino in the cockpit...
In the Isaribi's hangar bay...
Kenji just got out of Phoenix and made his way to Flauros' remains. He took a look inside the cockpit and saw Shino...
"Oh my God..." Kenji turned around and saw Yamagi standing there, Kenji knew about Yamagi's obvious crush on Shino so he figured it must be difficult for him. "Yamagi, I..."
Yamagi put his hand on Kenji's shoulder. "Thank you for bringing Shino back..."
Kenji silently nodded and walked away to check on the others, he swore that he saw tears forming in Yamagi's eyes.
Later Kenji learned that Derma lost his left arm and went to check up on him in the medical bay. There he saw Akihiro and Lafter with Derma.
"I'm glad to be able to still talk to you like this. Thank you for surviving. Derma Altland." Akihiro said to Derma.
"He's right, Akihiro already lost his little brother Masahiro and his adoptive brother Aston. You are basically the only family he has left Derma." Lafter added.
Derma started crying. "Yes, sir."
"Hey guys..." Kenji said.
"Kenji. Hey." Lafter said.
"Came to check up on our wounded?" Akihiro asked.
"Yeah, Derma especially, I'm glad he's alright. You guys want to talk for a bit?" Kenji asked.
"Of course." Akihiro said.
Lafter stretches her body. "Can we walk and talk. I feel like resting in my room right now."
"Yeah, we can do that." Kenji said.
"Chad, Dante, stay with Derma for a bit. I'll see you guys later." Akihiro said.
"Sure Akihiro." Chad said.
"Later." Dante said.
The three started to walk towards Lafter's room.
"This was a complete disaster." Kenji said.
"Yeah, now I hear that we're going back to Mars to plan our next attack on Rustal Elion." Akihiro said.
"What? McGillis hasn't given up on that yet, after what happened back there? Sounds like he's completely lost his mind." Lafter said.
"I really hate that guy." Kenji said. "Especially what he did to Almiria…"
They eventually made it to outside Lafter's room.
"Thanks guys." Lafter said.
"Sure." Kenji said.
"No problem. Come on Kenji." Akihiro said.
Before the two of them started to move, Lafter grabbed Akihiro's hand.
"Actually, do you mind... staying with me for some time?" Lafter asked.
Akihiro stared at Lafter for about a minute. "Okay. Sorry Kenji, go on ahead without me."
"Sure." Kenji watched Akihiro and Lafter get inside before moving to get some sword practice done. "Great job Lafter, go all out on him girl!"
After Kenji was finished, he went to check on the room where his fallen comrades are. He saw Yamagi yelling at Orga and Eugene.
"How dare you be so cowardly now!" Yamagi yelled.
"Oh no, he's still upset over Shino..." Kenji thought.
Eugene started to go after Yamagi as he was moving away, and Kenji followed soon after.
"Yamagi." Eugene said.
"That was pretty direct back there." Kenji added.
"I'm sorry. Something's wrong with me." Yamagi said.
"No, thanks. I didn't have the guts to tell him that. Because I understand how Orga feels, too." Eugene said.
"I don't. How Boss feels, or how Shino felt. I don't understand them." Yamagi said.
"I remember what Shino said." Eugene started.
Yamagi and Kenji both listened to Eugene as he recounts his conversation with Shino. How Shino knew about Yamagi's crush on him, how Tekkadan was like a real family that he liked, including how Kenji was a lovesick Samurai boy who can't get over the fact that his ex-girlfriend was already married to someone twice her age, and how Shino was willing to protect Tekkadan.
Kenji sighed at hearing how Shino described him. "Okay, I'll give Shino that, he may have had some horrible taste in color, but he was perceptive."
"Shino... I wanted to die with him rather than live on without him. But if I said that, Shino would probably get mad at me." Yamagi was crying.
"Yamagi." Eugene said.
"You think I can protect Tekkadan, too?" Yamagi asked.
"Yeah, I'm counting on you." Eugene said.
"Of course, Yamagi, behind every great Mobile Suit and its pilot, there is always a great mechanic ready to tune it up. Without your help, our Mobile Suits wouldn't last long out there." Kenji said.
"Thanks guys, and Kenji, thank you again for bringing Shino back, at least I can give a proper farewell to him." Yamagi said.
"Anytime Yamagi, live on, for Shino's sake." Kenji said.
A few hours later, Kenji went to Lafter's room to see if Akihiro is still there.
"Chad, Dante, and Derma said they haven't seen him. This was the last place I saw him." Kenji said. "Must be really enjoying himself with Lafter."
Just when Kenji was about to ring the doorbell, the door opened, and Akihiro came out.
Akihiro was surprised. "Oh, Kenji."
"Hey, I was wondering where you were, it's been a few hours, were you in that room this whole time?" Kenji asked.
"Yeah… I was..." Akihiro said.
"Uncle Naze always said that likes to express his love to his harem. Were you also expressing your love to Lafter?" Kenji asked.
Akihiro blushed then left without saying a word.
Kenji stared at Akihiro before ringing the doorbell. He heard some noises inside before the intercom showed Lafter's face, it looked like her hair was messy.
"Kenji, hey. What are you doing here?" Lafter was a little out of breath.
"I was looking for Akihiro, just bumped into him while he was leaving your room. You two did express your love for each other, right?" Kenji asked.
Lafter giggled. "Yeah, we definitely did."
"How was he?" Kenji asked.
Lafter blushed. "Way better than Naze…" Then she turned off her intercom.
"I knew you had it in you Akihiro…" Kenji thought before he went to see how everyone else was doing.
