Now that the 501st is back in action, Daniel can get back to the everyday grind – even if it means going through more of Mio's insane training. And now that he's been in this world a while, he'll be taking more upon himself as the story goes forward. Anyway, on with the story!
As Daniel flew above Mio and Yoshika in the supply truck below, he thought about the events that had just transpired. First, part of his deal with allied command had now gone into effect again, with him once again being assigned to the 501st Joint Fighter Wing. This meant that he would be staying in Romagna for the foreseeable future, and not returning to St. Petersburg and the 502nd as expected.
When he explained this over the phone to Sasha, she was obviously disappointed, but again understood that this was his duty and a part of being in the military. He tried to comfort her by promising to write frequently – which helped a little, though it wasn't the same as actually being there. He was then assigned as an escort for Mio and Yoshika as they took on a resupply mission to the 504th Joint Fighter Wing. This would serve a double purpose for Daniel, as he had to gather his things from the 504th's base.
When they arrived, the supplies were very much welcomed, but the witches were a little disappointed to see Daniel go. He thanked them for their hospitality and support before placing his bags in his fighter's cargo space and taking off, making sure to follow the truck carrying the 501st's two Fuso witches. In addition, he arranged for the truck to carry the supply of special fuel that was left for Daniel's fighter – which wasn't very much. More fuel would have to be arranged for with allied command.
Training began immediately upon return to the 501st's new base, and while most of the unit was still in top shape, Yoshika, Lynne, and Perrine struggled to keep up, as the three of them had not been performing military duties for the last six months. At seeing how out of practice they were, Mio decided to send them back to basic training – by having them train with an old witch named Anna Maria who had once instructed her – on a nearby island.
Over the next few days, the remaining members of the 501st continued to train and stay vigilant for the next Neuroi attack – though things were relatively peaceful for that short period of time. One afternoon, they received word that a Neuroi was making its way slowly along the coast, though it wasn't actually attacking anything on land. Not only that, it was also acting strangely in that it was traveling in a straight line.
They thought that it ultimately wouldn't be a problem, until they projected its exact path and saw that it would pass directly over the island where the girls were training with Anna. Commander Minna then called her up to warn them about the incoming Neuroi, and told them to evacuate to safety, as they wouldn't be able to send help that would reach them in time. As Minna hung up the phone, Daniel got her attention and volunteered to fly over to the island and provide assistance. "My fighter is much faster than any of the strikers – I can get there in time!" he explained.
This would mean that he would have to use the remainder of the fuel he had, but Minna gave him the go ahead, thinking that he may be able to at least hold off the Neuroi while everyone else escaped. As he took off and headed quickly towards the island, he hoped that he would make it in time to help the girls.
When he arrived, he saw, to his surprise, that the girls were already engaged in battle with the Neuroi. He then witnessed as the Neuroi's lasers clipped Lynne's striker unit, causing her to fall fast. Luckily, Yoshika was right there to catch her before she landed in the sea. However, now they would need to come up with a plan. At that moment, Daniel radioed in, "Are you three alright?" The girls cheered at the sight of Daniel's fighter approaching them.
As they formed a plan to combat the Neuroi before it reached the island, Daniel told them that he would do whatever they needed of him. As Yoshika held up Lynne and fired at the Neuroi with her, along with Perrine, they all seemed to be aiming for the same spot. Daniel targeted his laser cannons at the spot and started firing himself. Soon the core was exposed, and Lynne was able to get off the kill shot, shattering the core and destroying the Neuroi.
As they celebrated their victory of not only destroying the Neuroi, but also making sure everything on the island remained intact, they come back down to earth and landed safely. As Daniel got out of his fighter to make sure everyone was alright, a somewhat elderly woman approached them. 'Probably Anna Maria,' Daniel thought to himself. As she approached, she spoke in a slightly grumpy manner to Daniel. "Excuse me, young man, but just who are you?"
Yoshika quickly explained that Daniel was a part of the unit, and that he was a Jedi knight. At this, Anna got a look of surprise as she got closer to Daniel. "Is that so?" she asked, and as she got into Daniel's face, she said, "Here, let me get a look at you." Daniel was a bit confused by her actions, but didn't stop her. After a few moments, she seemed satisfied by what she saw. "A Jedi knight, huh? I never thought I would ever see one in my lifetime." As she began to walk back towards the house, she turned again towards Daniel and said, "I suppose I should thank you for coming out here to help. Would you like some dinner before heading back?"
Daniel smiled and replied, "That sounds great – thank you very much!" Anna continued to walk back towards the house and said, "Well, come on. Help your friends here – dinner isn't going to make itself." A simple, but hearty and delicious meal followed – something that Daniel had always wanted to experience in this country in his own world. As he left, he thanked Anna again for her hospitality and wished the other three girls luck on the rest of their training, as he got back into his fighter and flew back towards the base. A couple of days later, Yoshika, Lynne, and Perrine returned – triumphantly successful in their training.
About a week or so later, Daniel was in the hangar, on what had to be the hottest day he had experienced since coming to this world, working on his sensors yet again. It was so hot that Shirley had resorted to wearing a bikini while working on her striker unit. Even Daniel had decided to wear just a T-shirt and shorts that day. It was all he really could do for the time being to make himself useful. He had just about used the last of the fuel his fighter needed while helping Yoshika, Lynne, and Perrine at the island – and without fuel, he was out of commission until allied command sent more.
Daniel did what he could to try to keep everyone's energy up – which included playing Springsteen music over his fighter's speakers to get everyone pumped up. He figured it always worked for him – and Shirley also seemed to like it. No one else said anything about it one way or the other, except for Perrine, who definitely wasn't a rock person, and Trude, who once commented that Daniel shouldn't be distracting himself from his duties. However, Trude's attitude towards his music changed when, one day, she just had enough of trying to wake up Erica. Daniel offered the use of his iPod, stealthily putting the earbuds in Erica's ears while she was (still) sleeping before turning on the Rolling Stones' song Start Me Up. After that, Trude decided that his iPod was indeed useful to have around.
Minna and Mio then brought in a new, experimental striker unit powered by jet engines for one member of the squadron to test – complete with a host of new weapons that would scare off Rambo. Initially, Shirley and Trude were arguing (something that was a fairly frequent occurrence in the 501st) over who would get to be the one to use it when Francesca came flying in and strapped herself into the new striker and prepare to fly off with it, laughing maniacally.
However, before she was able to take off, the striker appeared to create a power surge that slightly zapped Francesca and startled her so much that she jumped out of the unit and ran to hide. After Shirley spoke with Francesca about it, she said that she would hold off on trying it, leaving Trude with the opportunity to test it first, though she and Shirley continued to bicker.
The first test they ran was to see how high they could go in the unit. While Shirley's standard unit maxed out at between 11,000 and 12,000 meters, Trude in the jet striker passed that and just seemed to keep going. After lunch, the two tested their payload potential, as they tried to carry the most weight while still being able to fight and maneuver in battle. With a target set up, Shirley was carrying multiple machine guns with several belts of rounds. Trude, however, was able to carry all of the new weapons that came with it, including what looked like a large anti-armor rifle and two mini turret guns. Not only was Trude able to match Shirley's maneuverability with the clearly heavier payload, but she was able to destroy the targets before Shirley could even get a shot off!
That night, the 501st enjoyed Yoshika's meat and potato stew in the hangar as everyone rested up and took in the results from earlier in the day. Shirley still wasn't on speaking terms with Trude – still sore over losing the tests – while Trude was off to the side and looked completely exhausted. Daniel wondered whether these tests were taking a toll on Trude – which was odd, since Trude always seemed to have an inordinate amount of energy.
The next day, Shirley and Trude were at it again – this time with a speed test, which was Shirley's specialty. While Shirley immediately zipped off when Francesca gave the start signal, Trude seemed to wait a few moments before getting going herself. When she did, she accelerated so fast that she caught and passed Shirley in almost no time, something that Shirley could only stare in disbelief at.
However, everyone could see there was a problem as Trude lost control of the unit, flying around randomly without even trying to stop. Sensing that she could end up crashing to her death if he didn't do something, Daniel used his telekinesis abilities through the Force to stop Trude and the jet striker. As it was going at very high speeds, it was difficult for Daniel to gain control, but he was definitely able to slow it down. After a minute, he was finally in complete control, as he turned off the jet striker's engines and brought Trude – who was still unconscious – gently back to the ground on the base runway. When he took a look, he could tell that Trude's magic energy was nearly depleted, and he called a medical team in to get her to the infirmary immediately.
While Trude was able to recover from this incident, it was determined that the jet striker was too dangerous to test any further, as it appeared to drain a witch's power at an alarming rate. While Trude tried to insist on continuing, Minna ordered her grounded until she was at full strength again and forbade anyone from flying the jet striker.
The next day, Daniel was with Minna in the main control room when the Neuroi alarm went off, calling the unit to action. With Daniel and Trude out of commission, and Eila and Sanya sleeping after their night patrol, that left Mio, Shirley, Francesca, Perrine, and Erica to fight the incoming Neuroi, with Yoshika and Lynne in reserve. As Daniel monitored the battle with Minna, he listened as one Neuroi became five, with the main one being handled by Shirley – though Shirley was having a hard time keeping up with it.
Minna decided to send Yoshika and Lynne to back up the rest, but before they took off, Trude decided to come in and take the jet striker out in order to engage the main Neuroi that was giving Shirley trouble. Before Minna could stop her, she had already taken off, with Trude's advanced apologies. Minna decided to give her five minutes to do the job, and while she was able to successfully destroy the Neuroi, the jet striker took its toll on Trude as she lost consciousness while in mid-flight.
At this point, it was up to Shirley to catch Trude before she killed herself, and using her special speed boost magic, she was just able to catch the jet striker and release Trude from it before it drained her magic completely. As she watched, the striker unit crashed again into the ocean before Shirley and the others headed back with a severely weakened Trude being carried back. When they recovered the jet striker, it was a total wreck.
While Trude was peeling potatoes as punishment for disobeying orders, a transport arrived at the base carrying someone from Allied R&D to pick up the jet striker. At first, Daniel (and most of the others) was confused when he saw someone who looked exactly like Erica, but with glasses, approach them. However, Minna quickly introduced her as Erica's twin sister, Lieutenant Ursula Hartmann. While Erica was a combat specialist, Ursula was a scientific genius who was an important member of the R&D division.
After she apologized for the trouble caused by the jet striker, she presented several large crates of potatoes as an apology. As several people grumbled about having even more potatoes, Daniel looked at this and thought, 'We need to do an Iron Chef competition with this!' Before he could make the suggestion, however, Ursula turned to him and said, "Captain Horowitz, I have something for you." She then approached Daniel and handed him the tablet that he had lent to the R&D division after the Gallia campaign.
Ursula explained that they had been able to copy all of the information from the tablet that they needed to reverse engineer the devices they could. After successfully recreating both the photon torpedo and the shield generator, the tablet was being returned to him, and production would begin on those devices, as well as the main fighter – although figuring out how to integrate mechanical functions into the more 'futuristic' portions would take a little more time. Ursula also explained that he should expect the first batch of photon torpedoes to be sent to the base – to replace the ones he would use in battle – and that he would be able to request more if needed.
"Oh. One other thing," she added, "I will be coming back again soon to take you to Allied headquarters to negotiate your fees and royalties as per your agreement." Daniel nodded, as he thanked her for getting his tablet back to him, as well as for her efforts in general.
She then looked around, and after spotting Yoshika, she said, "Sergeant Miyafuji, I also have something for you." As Yoshika came towards Ursula, she pulled out a large envelope and handed it to Yoshika. Once Yoshika opened the envelope and looked at the contents inside, her face lit up with excitement as she said, "It finally came through!" She then turned to Daniel and handed him the envelope and its contents as she said, "These are technically for you, Daniel." Daniel gave a slight look of surprise as he asked, "For me?" Yoshika nodded with a smile on her face as she replied, "I know it's a couple of months late, but it's actually a birthday gift for you from me and my family."
As Daniel looked at the contents, he saw that it was a number of documents – some in English and some in Japanese. As he looked through them and began to see what they all meant, he got a look of absolute shock on his face, not knowing whether he was reading everything right. He then looked up at Yoshika and asked, "Is this for real?" Yoshika nodded happily as she explained, "It was my mom and grandma's idea – you made a really good impression on them. Plus, Major Sakamoto was a big help in working with the Fuso and Liberion governments."
As Daniel continued to look at the papers in amazement, Minna asked, "What are they, Daniel?" Still stunned, he replied simply, "They're official adoption papers. Yoshika's family adopted me." Indeed they were, and thanks to this, Fuso also granted Daniel dual citizenship with Liberion. Yoshika then ran up to Daniel giggling as she gave him a big hug. "Now you're my onii-chan for real!" she exclaimed.
Everyone else present couldn't help but have a tear or two brought to their eyes at this very moving scene. Even Daniel couldn't prevent tears of happiness from falling as he hugged Yoshika with a gratitude that couldn't be adequately expressed in mere words. As they separated, Yoshika said, "Now you have a place you can call home." Daniel gave her a big smile and replied, "Thank you so much, Yoshika. I couldn't have asked for a better gift." While Daniel felt that he had a family of sorts with both the 501st and 502nd Joint Fighter Wings, he now felt that this official adoption truly gave him a place in this world.
So Daniel has an official family now! And don't try to claim that you didn't feel anything at that last scene! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that and that you continue to tune in to future chapters.