Holy moly, it's an update!

Chapter 2: That's Our Aika!

He had, actually, bluffed. Or even lied. He'd had a shit ton of luck getting through that storm. Still, didn't hurt to try and impress (and hopefully intimidate) his human hosts. The higher their opinion of him, the better his chances of getting out in a few days with his Ganmen and dignity more or less intact.

Regardless, the human named Katashi seemed to have bought it. The elder human led him through the winding hallways of the old outpost; it was a bitter feeling, being guided around what had once been theirs by the conquering enemy- and worse still, having to pretend it was all new to him. Still, he nodded and grunted approval at what he assumed were the right conversational beats.

At length, they came to the barracks section. Shit, Viral thought. If the human intended for him to sleep in the communal rank-and-file barracks, it'd make maintaining his cover more complicated. And then, thankfully, the human led him past the barracks to the officers' quarters.

"Since you're a guest here, I thought you might appreciate a little privacy," Katashi said, ushering Viral into an empty bunkroom.

More than you could possibly imagine, Viral thought. Aloud, he said, "I appreciate your consideration."

"Someone will come by later to help you get settled in," Katashi told him. "So, rest up! And, please, feel at home here!"

With that, the human turned and left, shooing away the crowd that had followed them and now crowded around peering in. The door shut, and Viral scowled.

Well, the humans would be expecting him to rest for a while; by all rights, he ought to have been exhausted after fighting his way through that sandstorm. And, in a sense, he almost was. Not physically, of course, but on a level deeper than that. Some deep, dark thing he didn't want to spend too long dwelling upon. Sitting around idly was the last thing he felt like doing, but he resigned himself to staying confined to his new quarters for at least a couple of hours. Scoffing, he strode over to the cot across the room and dropped onto it, stretching out on his back with his hands behind his head. He had no intention of sleeping at a time like this, surrounded by all these humans, but he could at least play the part.

"At home here, huh?" he muttered.

Aika bounded breathlessly into the meeting room, weaving her way through the stream of people pouring in. Ducking past a bundle of cables that draped down from the ceiling, she slid onto a makeshift bench next to Chiyo.

"How d'ya always get here so fast?!" Aika panted, slumping against her friend's shoulder.

"I don't. I get here early," Chiyo said dryly. "Give it a try sometime!"

"Ahh, no need! I've got you to save a seat for me," Aika teased. Chiyo elbowed her, and Aika elbowed right back.

At the head of the room, Katashi waved his hands for silence. The crowd settled in, and slowly quieted down.

Once he had their attention, Katashi got started. "Thank you for coming to this meeting on such short notice, everyone. As you know, we have a guest staying with us: the young man who came in from the sandstorm."

Aika sat forward eagerly.

"He has requested the use of our hangar to repair the damage to his Ganmen," Katashi went on. "I know many of you have your concerns, and it's true we don't know who he is or where he came from. But for now, let's all welcome him as one of our own. Since he's just arrived, I would like some volunteers to guide him around the base, and keep an eye on-"

Aika's hand was already up. Katashi's bushy eyebrows raised, the corner of his mouth twitching upward.

"Yes, Aika?"

"I volunteer!" Aika said.

"Thank you, Aika," Katashi said, smiling.

"That's our Aika!" chuckled someone behind her. Aika twisted in her seat, grinned, and flashed a thumbs up.

"Do we have any other volunteers?" Katashi asked.

Chiyo raised her hand. "I'll volunteer. Someone's got to keep an eye on this one, after all," she said, shooting a sidelong smirk in her friend's direction. Aika made a rude face in return.

"Thank you, Chiyo. Anyone else?" Katashi asked.

The crowd murmured. A couple more hands tentatively went up, but most of them stayed down.

"Not very many, huh," Chiyo remarked under her breath.

"Feh! That's fine by me!" Aika whispered back. The fewer volunteers there were, the more chances she'd have to talk to their visitor. She wasn't about to waste such a valuable opportunity!

The meeting didn't last long after that, but it still didn't end quickly enough for her liking.

After a hasty discussion with Katashi, Aika sprang into action. She set off for the barracks, and as she hurried along, she rehearsed what she might say. She aimed to get on this guy's good side, and fast; after all, there was no telling how much time she might have. The repairs might only take a day, for all she knew.

And then, suddenly, the door stood in front of her. For all that the meeting had seemed to drag on forever, the walk to the barracks had ended all too soon. She paused, taking a second to arrange her bangs and straighten the collar on her coat. Then she cleared her throat, squared her shoulders, and knocked on the door.

Nothing. Aika waited, breathless. She counted to fifteen, then rapped on the door again. Had he wandered off on his own, perhaps? And then the lock clanked, the door swung inward a little bit, and their mysterious visitor peered out.

Aika took a half-step back, startled. He was taller than he'd looked from a distance, and his one visible eye fixed upon her with an unnervingly piercing stare. The iris of that eye was a vivid golden-yellow color, which glinted oddly in the harsh light of the corridor. A tan scarf wrapped around his head to cover the rest of his face; the same scarf he'd been wearing back in the hangar bay. Strange, she thought, that he hadn't taken it off yet.

Still, this was her chance to talk to a real live Ganmen expert, and she wasn't about to let herself get scared off by something as insignificant as a weird-looking eye.

Putting on her most charming smile, she chirped, "Yo! Welcome to Hajime Village! My name is Aika, and I'm here to be of assistance to you!" She threw in a jaunty little salute, for good measure.

"Assistance, hm?" he echoed skeptically.

"Yeah! Just think of me as your guide around here," she proclaimed, waving her hand loftily.

"...I see," he said. Aika wasn't sure whether she ought to feel insulted by that pause, which had seemed rather unnecessarily long in her opinion.

"Ah! Here, I have something for you." Having very nearly forgotten about it, she rummaged in the depths of her coat pockets till she found the handheld comm she'd brought along. She held it out to him. "I wrote my comm code on it, and the others who volunteered to help too, so any time you need to reach me, you can use this, okay?"

He considered it warily for a long moment before lifting a hand to take it. Aika very nearly dropped the comm in surprise; was it the thick layer of bandages that made his his hand and forearm look so massive? He must've noticed the direction of her astonished stare, because he chuckled thinly.

"If you're wondering about the bandages: there was a fire," he said.

Aika flushed. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to stare. Uh, anyway, I bet you're probably tired, so..."

"I've rested enough," he said. "I wish to begin repairs on my Ganmen, if I may."

"Oh, sure!" Aika beamed, embarrassment forgotten. Now this was what she'd been hoping for!

He stepped out of the room and shut the door. As he did so, she snuck a curious glance at his other arm; the hand and forearm were just as thick and just as heavily bandaged. Must've been one hell of a fire, she thought to herself.

As they set off for the hangar, Aika's pulse thrummed with anticipation. She snuck a sidelong glance at their mysterious visitor, wondering how best to strike up a conversation. Might as well start with the basics, she thought.

"I still haven't gotten your name, by the way," she prompted.

"That's unimportant."

"Well, we've gotta call you something other than 'hey, you', right?" Aika said, chortling.

"'Hey, you' will be fine."

"...Ah." So much for that.

"So, have you been a Ganmen pilot for very long?" she asked, turning to the stranger following at her heels.

"Yes," he said simply.

"Where did you learn to pilot?" she tried.

He was silent for a second before answering. "It's a long story."

Aika shrugged. "I have time."

"It's a long story that I would prefer not to tell," he said pointedly.

"Ah," Aika said. Well, off to a bad start so far.

They walked in silence. Aika was trying to bide her time- "trying" being the sticking point. On the one hand, she couldn't squander this chance to learn more about Ganmen. On the other hand, if she let her curiosity get the better of her and pried too much, she might piss him off and ruin her chances entirely. Clearly, she was going to have to be smart about this.

As they walked, the stranger was starting to get ahead of her. Aika found herself walking faster to keep up with him.

"Oi, oi, if you leave me behind you're gonna get lost! I'm your guide, remember?" she chided lightly. Their guest paused, head inclining slightly.

"Hm, you're right. My apologies," he said. He continued walking, slowing down to let her take the lead again.

The hangar was quiet when they arrived. The few techs on duty were mostly hanging around the stranger's Ganmen, talking excitedly amongst themselves. Aika couldn't blame them; it was quite the specimen, towering over the three other Ganmen in the hangar that their village had acquired, and far outclassing them in looks. She felt guilty for thinking it, since one of the three was her own, but there was no denying it. Even in spite of the damage that its sleek white-and-gray armor plating had taken in its travels, this was clearly an outstanding machine.

"Hnh," the stranger snorted. Raising his voice, he called out, "Does my Ganmen interest you?"

The techs started guiltily. The stranger strode over to them, Aika trotting along to keep up with his long strides.

"We've never seen one with four arms before," one of them, named Rin, admitted sheepishly.

"Of course. It's quite rare," the stranger said. Yep, there it was again, that unfaltering confidence tinged with arrogance she'd heard when he'd arrived.

"If you need any help with the repairs, just let us know, okay?" said another tech, Yori.

"I will remember your offer." He sounded about as convinced as he had when Aika had introduced herself.

The techs all but scattered from his path as he walked between them towards his Ganmen. Aika, undeterred, followed him.

"So, what kind of repairs does this thing need?" she asked, in what she hoped was the sort of tone a seasoned hand might use.

"I won't know until I've examined the damage," he said, and then he paused mid-step. "You're... still following me."

"Well, sure. I'm your guide, aren't I?" Aika said.

"Yes- to the hangar, as I understood it. Surely you must have other duties to attend to," he said pointedly.

Gleefully, Aika said, "Nope!" She had very deliberately cleared her daily duties with Katashi so she could ingratiate herself with their visitor.

"You did well bringing me here. There's no need to trouble yourself with me further right now," he said, turning towards the Ganmen. He said that, but his tone suggested it wasn't her trouble he was worried about. Unfortunately for him, Aika wasn't about to be put off so easily.

"It's no trouble. I'm here to assist you, remember? Besides," and here she paused for effect, "I'm... something of a Ganmen pilot myself, y'know?"

"Oh?" He didn't look back at her, but he did stop walking, and turned his head to glance at the other three Ganmen stationed around the hangar. "One of these, hmm?"

"That's right!" Aika said proudly. "The one over there that looks like a bull!"

He looked over at the Ganmen; Aika regarded it smugly for a second, taking a moment to appreciate its gleaming armor plating.

"Red," he remarked. It was, in fact, painted a vivid crimson red from top to bottom.

"Yeah! I painted it red in honor of Gurren Lagann," Aika said.

"Hnh. Of course," the stranger muttered. Now that, Aika thought, was weird. This was the first time she'd heard anyone speak of the legendary Ganmen with anything less than excitement and a certain amount of reverence. And now the stranger did glance back at her over his shoulder. "And where did you learn to pilot?"

He was tossing her own words from before back at her. Undaunted, Aika grinned and crossed her arms.

"I'm self-taught," she said. "All three of us are. We've done our best teaching ourselves piloting and maintenance, but... it sure would be nice to learn from an expert." She put on what she hoped was a winning smile, leaning forward and clasping her hands behind her back.

There was an annoyingly long silence. And then the stranger turned back around and took off towards his Ganmen at a fast clip.

Aika sagged. "He ignored me," she muttered. And then she caught a glimpse of one bandaged hand as the edge of his cloak flapped back for a second, and something occurred to her.

She said, "Uh, isn't it gonna be tough to do the repairs with those bandages? Your hands are still healing from the fire, right?"

He stopped in his tracks. There was an even longer silence. Aika grinned; she had him now!

"Look, you don't wanna hurt your hands. If you show me what to do, I can help you," she offered.

The silence stretched on uncomfortably, until finally he said, "I will see what I can do on my own. Your offer is... generous." And then he took off for his Ganmen.

Aika heaved an aggravated sigh, crossing her arms. "So this isn't gonna be easy, huh?"

Shit. Shit. He'd known he was taking a risk with this cover story, but he hadn't expected his lie to come back and bite him in the ass quite so damn fast- and certainly not like this.

The human was accidentally right: the repairs would be much more difficult with his hands bandaged, and to remove them was to risk these humans finding out he was not one of them.

Still... allowing a human to repair his Ganmen for him? And an unskilled one, at that? Even with his guidance, the idea of allowing human hands to work on Enkidudu...

No, he'd take his chances and try to do the repairs on his own before he'd resort to that. Standing at his Ganmen's feet, he stared up at its bulk and sighed.

"Let's see what's become of you after that storm," he muttered.

"What I need is a plan!" Aika said. Seated in the communal dining hall at dinner with Chiyo and Shoji, she toyed distractedly with a slice of coarse bread, jabbing it into her steamed veggies and pig-mole steak without eating a bite.

"Hey, your stuff's all gonna get cold," Chiyo pointed out.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Hurriedly, Aika shoved a few bites into her mouth.

"I don't know, Aika, he seems kind of... weird," Shoji said.

"Weird or not, this is definitely my big chance!" Aika insisted. "I've gotta get him to talk to me more before he leaves!"

"Speaking of which, where is he?" Chiyo said. "You commed him to let him know it was gonna be dinnertime soon, right?"

"Of course!" Aika retorted. She considered, then admitted, "He didn't reply though. What about you, or the other volunteers?"

"None of the rest of us have heard from him. You'd think he'd be hungry by now," Chiyo remarked.

"Hmmm," Aika muttered. She tapped her bread against her plate, then came to a decision. She bolted down her food, then hopped up and trotted back to the kitchen.

When she arrived back at the hangar, the place was deserted, except for the lone figure up on the scaffolding by the four-armed Ganmen.

"Jeez, there's such a thing as being too dedicated, y'know?" Aika muttered. Walking over, she stopped at the foot of the scaffold and shouted up, "Oi! It's dinnertime!"

The stranger leaned over the railing of the upper platform, peering down at her- his face still hidden behind the scarf, she noted.

"Trying to get into my good graces with an offering of food, hm?" he remarked.

Aika glanced down at the tray in her hands, then back up. "I mean, sure, I wanna learn about Ganmen, but... you're our guest, y'know?" she said.

He didn't answer at first. "As I said before, you needn't trouble yourself with me."

Aika snorted. "Don't be stupid! Aren't you hungry? You've been working on that thing for hours! I commed to tell you it was dinnertime, but you didn't answer."

"And so you've brought that to me," he observed.

"Yeah, obviously! It'd be rude not to! Maybe they do things differently in your village, wherever it is, but around here we look out for each other!" Aika shouted back. She frowned at the tray she was carrying, then set it down on the lowest level of the scaffold. "Look, I'll leave this here. Try to eat it before it gets completely cold, okay?"

She turned on her heel and walked out, tossing a careless salute back over her shoulder as she went.

"Shoji was right: he is weird," Aika grumbled to herself.

Viral waited till the human's footsteps had faded down the corridor before he descended from the scaffolding and retrieved the tray of food. He did need to eat. A quick glance around the hangar confirmed he was alone, but he still carried the tray up to Enkidudu's cockpit and closed the hatch before pulling down his scarf.

As he ate, he mulled over what the human had said. He didn't particularly want to, but her words bounced around his thoughts anyway.

This one had a selfish motive for being kind to him; she wanted to learn about Ganmen, for whatever reason. But there was also the aggravating near-certainty that she'd meant what she'd said, and that she was also being kind to him on principle. He always seemed to underestimate what aggressively social creatures humans were.

Granted, she believed him to be one of her own: a human. He chuckled thinly; what would this gregarious human say, he wondered, if she knew the truth?

Later, at a reasonable hour, he made his way back to his allotted quarters. He didn't summon his human "guide"; if asked, he'd claim he'd made his way back by memory. Naturally, the truth was that he'd been to many such outposts before the fall, and they were all built to a certain level of standardization; finding his way was no chore.

He'd have preferred to keep working, but the humans would be expecting him to rest; it would raise questions if one of them came into the hangar during the night and found him still there.

So he stretched out on his borrowed bunk- borrowed back from the victors, he thought sourly. And he considered the human who had apparently been assigned to him.

He recognized the coat she was wearing; it was an officer's coat, doubtlessly left behind when its owner had fled after the fall. Just one more thing the humans had claimed for themselves. It was far too big for her slim frame, but she didn't seem to mind. She'd already inhabited it, making herself at home in it just as readily as the Ganmen that she and all the rest had taken, wearing it as comfortably as if it had always been hers.

Even as the thought of it galled him, he felt like an idiot for caring about it so damn much. What difference did it make if the human claimed a Beastman officer's coat as her own, or a Ganmen for that matter? The empire was gone, the army was gone, and it had all been built on a lie anyway. And yet- and yet...

Viral ground his teeth and rolled over, seething with frustration: at the humans, at Lordgenome, at himself. Three years had done little to quell any of the confusion left behind in the wake of the fall, and the secrets he'd learned just beforehand. And every time he thought he was over it, every time he thought he'd accepted it (or at least given up trying to understand it)... well, he was always proven wrong.

Sometimes, in his bitterest moments, he reckoned that if Lordgenome was still alive he'd like to kill the bastard himself.

Viral's comm buzzed bright and early the next morning. He glared balefully at it and considered ignoring the damn thing, then thought better of it. He picked the beeping comm up and clicked it to the right channel.

"Yes," he stated.

"Hey you!" chimed the cheerful voice on the other end.

Viral frowned at the comm, bewildered. "Hm?"

"You said that'd be fine, remember? If you don't like it, then tell me your name," Aika said breezily. "Anyway, I'm on my way to come and get ya, it'll be breakfast time soon and don't even try and tell me you're not hungry, because I won't have it!"

Viral grimaced. "Very well, then," he muttered. He clicked off the comm, sat up and stretched; he'd actually slept a little, for the first time in months. It'd been preferable to sitting awake and idle all night.

When he opened the door at her knock, Aika grinned broadly and presented him with a bundle of fabric.

"And what is all this?" Viral asked skeptically.

"Fresh clothes and a towel for the showers!" she announced. "Had to guess your size, so it might be a little too big. I thought it'd be better to guess too high than too low, ya know?"

"Hm." The showers, of course, would be the communal rank-and-file showers, he was sure. And that, of course, was no more of an option than sleeping in the communal barracks. Luckily, he already had an excuse to get out of that one. "I appreciate these. There's no need for you to show me to the showers; I can use the one here."

Aika's jaw dropped. "What?! You get your own shower?" she exclaimed.

"This was an army outpost. Private quarters such as these would've belonged to a high-ranking officer. With rank comes privileges, such as privacy," he said. Turning, he gestured across the room to an alcove hidden behind a curtained doorway.

"Aw!" Aika whined.

"You didn't know?" he asked, tilting his head. "You've lived here for quite a while, haven't you?"

"I hardly ever come out to this part of the barracks," she muttered. Sighing, she crossed her arms and said, "Well, go ahead and have your fancy private shower, then. I'll wait outside and we'll go to the mess hall when you're done. Unless you got a private kitchen in there, too," she added in an aggrieved grumble.

She stepped out and he shut the door behind her. Well, he now had a few minutes' time in which to come up with an excuse for not eating breakfast with the rest of them. He'd need to eat eventually, but he obviously wasn't about to show off his clearly non-human teeth to an entire room full of humans. If worst came to worst, he'd skip a meal or two and hold off as long as he could, and figure out a way to eat in private later on.

After double-checking that the door was locked, he examined what Aika had brought him. It was a standard-issue jumpsuit, slate blue-gray, of the type that would've been found by the hundreds in any military outpost's laundry. He'd seen many of the base's new human occupants wearing the same (and variants thereof, cobbled together with other articles of clothing).

Working fast, he disrobed and scrubbed his clothes in the shower and hung them up to dry, then bathed and dried off, putting on the jumpsuit and his boots. He had to admit, having the chance to properly bathe was almost enough to make putting up with these humans worth it. The feeling of clean skin and hair had become somewhat of a luxury over the past three years. Out in the wastelands, maintaining the level of hygiene expected of a (former) Capital soldier, and a (former) commander at that, was next to impossible.

The sleeves on the jumpsuit were a standard size, and thus an obvious problem; he solved it quickly and tore them off at the shoulder, his claws making short work of the seams. Carefully, he rewrapped the bandages around his forearms, hands, and fingers. He also rewrapped the scarf to cover his face. The scarf was starting to smell, much to his disgust. There was nothing to do about it at the moment, though. He'd have to wash it later and let it dry overnight.

As ready as he was going to be, he stepped out into the corridor. Aika, true to her word (just his luck), was leaning against the opposite wall and fiddling idly with her comm. She perked up and pushed off the wall as he shut the door behind himself- and then she immediately let out a very loud, almost convulsive snort and clapped both hands over her mouth.

"W-what-" She broke off, muffling a sharp laugh. "What-did-you-do-to-the-sleeves?" she squeaked.

"They wouldn't fit over the bandages," he said stiffly.

"Right, r-right," she choked out, voice still pitched at a high squeak. "So, of course, instead of m-maybe fewer bandages...? You, pfff, you just...?!"

"The bandages are necessary, the sleeves were not," he growled.

"I see, I see! Looks- pfff - looks good! Looks very normal!" Still stifling high-pitched giggles, she headed off down the corridor and motioned for him to follow. He grudgingly fell into step alongside her.

Mercifully, the human kept to herself as they walked. Odd, given her peppering him with questions the day before, but Viral decided not to question it.

The cheerful cacophony of human chatter bombarded Viral's sensitive ears as they stepped into the mess hall. He grimaced behind his scarf; the mess hall would've been noisy in the outpost's army days too, of course, but there was a certain gleeful abandon to human voices in a crowd, a certain lack of restraint that would never have been tolerated under any commanding officer. Keeping his head down, he dutifully followed Aika through the crowded mess hall to the end of the line snaking along the far wall.

As they got closer, Aika suddenly bounced up on her toes and waved to someone, picking up her pace. Two others were waiting for her in the lineup: a young woman with red eyes and brown hair, and a nervous-looking sandy-haired young man.

"Hiii!" Aika trilled. "Look who I pried out of his hiding place!" She gestured grandly to him, as if she'd performed some sleight-of-hand trick.

"Ah, our mystery guest," the red-eyed woman said. "Has she been talking a new set of holes into your ears about Ganmen?"

"Not today, suspiciously," Viral remarked.

Aika scoffed. "Don't underestimate me! I do talk about other things too, you know."

"Oh? We'll see; the day's young, after all," Viral said, not missing a beat.

The red-eyed woman grinned. "Good luck with this one, Aika," she commented, then gestured for them to join the line between herself and the young man, who shuffled backwards to make space. Aika settled into line next to her friend, chatting away to her, leaving Viral to stand next to the anxious-looking young man; he spared a glance sideways, and the young man immediately looked away, blanching.

Mercifully, this arrangement meant that Viral had a few minutes to himself as the line snaked its way forward. Once all four of them had received their portions, he trailed along with them to a table across the hall- and as the three of them set down, this was where he put his plan into action.

"If you'll excuse me, I would prefer to eat alone," he said. "I will go ahead to the hangar and eat there; I'll bring the dishes back later."

"Huh? You sure? Sounds lonely," Aika said.

Viral chuckled. He already had an excuse lined up. "I'm certain you've noticed by now that I don't remove my scarf; I have scars, quite serious ones. I wouldn't want to ruin anyone's appetite," he said smoothly.

"Eh, okay, if you gotta. You remember how to get to the hangar?" Aika asked. Viral cocked his head, eying her warily. This was a remarkable change of tone from the day before, when she'd clung to his side like a particularly stubborn thorn; then again, she had her friends here with her. Doubtlessly she wanted to sit and talk with them for a while before the day's duties got into full swing. Well, either way, he wasn't about to to take the chance for granted.

"I do remember, thank you," he said. Giving them a polite bow of his head, he turned on his heel and headed out of the mess hall, satisfied with his clean getaway.

Once he'd finished his breakfast, he got back to the task at hand: checking Enkidudu over to assess all of the damage. The fine grit from the sandstorm had worked its way into what seemed like every single crevice of the Ganmen's armor plating, and he'd better damn well find all of it; any spots he missed, any hidden deposits of sand, would wreak hell on the inner mechanisms of the Ganmen later on. Not to mention, he had to track down any damage that had already happened. Cursing his luck, he got to work.

The few humans in the hangar left him alone, and he had a blissfully quiet morning to himself.

"Yo! Hey, you!"

Viral sighed and sat back on his heels. He stood and looked down over the scaffold railing; sure enough, there was Aika, grinning up at him with her hands shoved into the pockets of her oversized coat.

"I'm not surprised to see you here, but I am surprised you waited this long," he remarked.

She poked her tongue out, then hopped onto the bottom rungs of the scaffold ladder and started climbing. "I was busy this morning, I do have other things I gotta do around here," she retorted.

"Ah, is that so? Then please, don't neglect your duties on my account," he said.

"Uh-uh-uh! I volunteered, remember? For the rest of the day, you're my duties," she said smugly. She bounded off the ladder and stood before him, fists on hips, still grinning widely. "So, what are we doing?"

"I am assessing the damage to my Ganmen," he pronounced.

"Right, right, got it! And what can I do?" Aika asked, leaning forward eagerly.

"You?" Viral let the word hang in silence for a long few seconds. "You can sit over there." He pointed to the far corner of the scaffold platform, well out of the way.

"Ah." She drooped, disappointed; but then, to his surprise, she rallied and perked up. "All right, then!" She strode over and leaned back into the corner of the railing, hands disappearing into her cavernous coat pockets again.

"Hm? You don't have better things to do with your time than to sit in a corner?" he jeered.

Aika shrugged. "Nope! Like I said, my job today is to keep an eye on you! Besides, I get to stay and watch, don't I?"

Damn. So much for discouraging her. Resigning himself to his fate, he got back to work, but he kept her in his peripheral vision.

She leaned back against the railing and tilted her head, admiring the Ganmen. She shifted her weight and lightly swung her right foot back and forth, heel tapping against the base of the railing. "Man, whoever piloted this thing in the old man's army must've been a real hotshot, huh?"

Viral scoffed so sharply, it actually hurt his throat a little. "Yes, possibly even an officer," he said wryly.

"How'd you get your hands on a mecha like this, anyway?"

"Skill, determination, and a little luck." Not untrue; that was how he'd gotten his rank, and the top-tier Ganmen to go with it.

As he moved around to the next section of armor plating, he saw Aika shifting in place; she leaned this way and that, craning her neck, obviously trying to see what he was doing. Feeling peevish, he took a big step to the right and fiddled with the connection points on an armor panel, watching from the corner of his eye. Aika scooted to the right, leaning to the side, then sidestepped left and tried from the other side. He detached the panel and crouched with deliberate slowness to set it down; Aika raised herself on her tiptoes to see over his bent back, doubtlessly trying to get a look at the now-exposed machinery behind the panel. He stood again and shot her a pointed look; she grinned and didn't even have the decency to look embarrassed at having been caught in her obvious snooping.

"So what's the damage?" she asked.

"It's not something you'd understand without knowledge of Ganmen mechanics," he said cooly.

"Well, you could... explain it to meeee? As if I were a student?" she prompted, clasping her hands and leaning forward with what she probably believed was another charming smile.

The audacity. He stared at her for a long few seconds, then went right back to his work. Teaching a human about Ganmen? No. Certainly not. Definitely, definitely not.

LOL SURE PAL. Anyway, not sure when the next update will be ready, but it will be eventually, so keep an eye out!