The Witches and the Complex (part 3)

(Adapted from the chapter Nipa and Hasse (Part 3), from the manga series Witches of Aurora by Kyougoku Shin.)

"Lapra! How long till you can deploy your shield again?" Nipa asked Laura on the radio.

"Ten...no, give me five minutes."

"Got it. In the meantime, focus on giving orders from the sidelines."

"Illu, can you go wild and draw the enemy's attention? I want to avoid getting caught in the line of fire."

"Aye, ma'ma."

"Also, please ask everyone who's exhausted to regroup near my location. Shift to a defensive formation, now!"

Nikka Edvardine Katajanen methodically arranged every cog of this unit, showing her unwonted leadership. Everyone was surprised at how she was so different from the whiny child she usually was, the whiny child who always pouted and said "I can do it on my own!"

"I will protect everyone!" said Nipa, half to all her comrades, half to herself. Her firm, determined voice echoed in the air of Suomus and everyone's communicator, vibrating their eardrums.

Nipa continued giving orders, "All of you, stay close and watch each other's backs! We'll hold this position until Lapra recovers. Leave the attack to Illu. Our job will be to divert the enemy's attention. Don't push yourselves."

"It's like we're seeing a completely different person…" exclaimed a girl with blonde braids. She was the newbie witch who once remarked that Nipa and Hasse were so dissimilar despite their close resemblance. Another witch beside her nodded her agreement.

"!" No lapse of concentration was allowed in battle time. When the newbie witch was paying all her attention to Nipa, a Neuroi made a dash for her before she ever noticed it. Next second a familiar figure already got in front of her and put up a shield, successfully protecting her. It was none other than Nipa.

"Do it! Fire!" Nipa demanded, still keeping the shield up.

"Al...alright!" The newbie witch, barely recovered from shock, raised her gun and took aim then fired.

"You alright?"

"Yes, somehow…" she felt quite embarrassed from being saved by someone whom she once laughed at.

Again, Nipa shouted, "I'll shield you from their attacks! Don't lose your focus!"

Somewhere on the edge of the battlefield, Laura was watching the ongoing battle while she was taking her must-needed rest. The longer she observed Nipa's fighting style, the more worried she grew. Nipa had been keeping her shield working at maximum power, and she was making use of the BF-109 so well that any gap which appeared in their formation were closed in an instant, but she would run out of magic very soon if she kept going on like that.

Wasting no time, Laura turned on her communicator, "Don't, Nipa! You're overworking yourself! You'll not last long with that kind of fighting!"

"It's alright, Lapra. Don't worry." Across the communicator came Nipa's reassuring voice.

"But—" When she wanted to argue, Laura was interrupted by a voice which was not very high-pitched but possessed a laid-back, high-spirited nature.

"This is something only Nipa can do. It's her natural style!" Seeing Nipa finally find her place, Eila just couldn't be happier.

With her both arms stretching forwards to keep the shield in the hope of offering her comrades the strongest protection, Nipa's mind wandered back to earlier…

Today, Sergeant Katajainen came back from a sortie with her Striker Unit destroyed. This is the second time it's happened. This accident was caused by the sergeant pushing the engine over its capabilities. The person in question suffered only minor injuries, but I recently noticed that she had the tendency to ignore her own life while fighting. I need to take preventive actions so that this doesn't happen again in the near future.

That being said, even an accident like that only resulted in minor injuries. It must be noted that Sergeant Katajainen's defensive power is something to be proud of. She's both persistent and determined. Perhaps the power she has stems from this peculiarity of hers.

She can fight and keep her shield up for a remarkably long time. It wouldn't be a mistake to consider her abilities as top-class amongst all of the witches in Suomus and the 24th Squadron.

There's no doubt that her skills would become the main factor of a defensive war, in case we get overwhelmed by the enemy.

Based on this, I would like to discuss a future course with that stubborn sergeant and find a better way to do things.

That was an excerpt from the notebook Aurora gave her. Nipa fell into a long silence after she read it. What Eila said before being punched on the head by Aurora echoed in her head again, "You don't know Hasse's feelings at all…!"

For a long time, Hasse had noticed her abilities and been constantly caring about her...! Illu was right. The one who had been looking down on her, Nikka Edvardine Katajainen, was herself, not Hasse...!

Warm liquid filled her eyes. One teardrop after another rolled down her cheeks. All the indignation from being looked down on was gone, replaced by overflowing remorse. Not until this moment did she face her own stubbornness and silliness.

So, she would fight. If it was not too late, she would protect everyone with her own hands, with all her might. She would by no means squander all Hasse had done for her. Wiping off her tears, Nipa took such a vow.

With a brand-new heart, Nikka Edvardine Katajainen returned to the sky.

"You look really tired. Wanna take a rest too, Illu?"

Nipa was speaking the truth. Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen, who was fighting in a back-to-back defensive formation with Nipa, was running out of energy. She was covered in sweat and her body was shaking heavily from panting. But still she retained the placid manner of Suomus' top ace. "Idiot! I've only just started!"

Something was approaching. Eila and Nipa immediately turned to face it as soon as they sensed it at the same time. It turned out to be a large-type Neuroi. In the shape of a flatfish, it might have evolved from a submarine or aircraft carrier.

Wasting no time, this huge metallic fish greeted them with a beam volley. Nipa poured her magic into her arms to strengthen her shield. Eila leaned backwards from the impact and raised one forearm to her eyebrows, shielding her eyes from the blinding light.

"The density of the beams is too high and the escort vessels are in the way, too… Damn, finding a safe route with my foresight is getting hard…" It seemed that even Suomus' top ace was at her wits' end.

Thankfully, Laura's voice came through the radio right away.

"This is Laura. Thank you for holding them off. Everything is fine here. I'm good to go now. Sorry for making you worry. I've had enough time to recover."

"Anyway, what are we going to do with that big guy?"

"I've seen it but it is bad… In times like these we could count on Hasse's sniping…"

When Hasse's name was mentioned, Nipa lowered her head in shame, with her arms still outstretched forward to maintain the shield.

"But there's still a way. You two might be able to pull this off."

Laura started to explain her plan.

The Neuroi could fire multiple beams in one shot, but it must be unable to do it nonstops, as every shot would certainly consume a great amount of energy, so the key to success might be striking it when it stopped to recharge, but it would be hard to do that if one didn't get close enough. Considering Eila's exhausted state, it would be impossible for her to perform perfect avoidance, so Laura advised that Nipa and Eila work together through the whole fight with Nipa doing the shielding and Eila doing the shooting.

Therefore, the Unlucky Katajainen and the Lucky Juutilainen formed a two-person troop and charged at the center of the volley of beams.

With her both hands stretching forwards, Nipa kept up a shield with her weapon on her back. Eila, next to her, was holding her weapon in her hands, ready to shoot at any time. Nipa's shield deflected one of the beams, separating it into a bunch of red laser flows radiating outwards in all directions.

As Laura had expected, the Neuroi stopped the discharge of the beams a while later. The flow of light which had been blocking the two witches' fields of view vanished in a blink, the body of the Neuroi and the clear sky now on full display to them.

Just now!

"Go! Illu! Bring it down!" shouted Nipa.

Eila shot off, pulled up her upper body and fired. With a deafening boom, orange fireballs and heavy smoke immediately surrounded the target, which later transformed into countless crystal clear shards. Mission complete!

Relieved, Nipa closed the shield and put down her hands. Her left cuff was tattered. Her whole palm was injured and bleeding.

Laura let out a long sigh of relief, too. Behind them, some newbie witches lifted their weapons over their heads to express their joy. Far away on the ground, Hasse, lying in a truck, smiled at the sight of the shards dancing all over the sky.

"It's still too soon to celebrate! There're still some enemy crafts left! Don't relax until we've killed every single one!"

"Roger!" All the members of the squadron replied in unison.

Hours later, the day's battle came to an end with all the teammates' efforts. The whole squadron returned to base safe and sound.

Slap!

Suddenly, a crisp sound of slapping was heard. Everyone at present turned over to search for the source of the sound. A newbie witch who was bandaging Laura's arm stopped and did the same.

It turned out to be Commander Luukkanen and Nipa. One of Luukkanen's hands remained in midair, and Nipa's left face was swollen.

"Sergeant Katajainen, you know full well the gravity of your actions, right?"

"…Yes."

"Did you read that written report?"

"Yes."

"Did you find out what you really lacked?"

Nipa, with her left face still swollen, lifted her head to face the commander, light of determination radiating in her eyes, "Yes!"

After letting out a sigh, the commander started to make her way to the base. With her back to Nipa, she added, "10 days in the detention barracks. You're cleaning the hangar again along with the toilets now. Use this time to reflect on your actions."

"Commander—" when Nipa was trying to say something else, Luukkanen added, "Also, Hasse's life seems to be out of danger now. Please pay a visit to her after this. That's all." After finished her words, the commander walked into the base without looking back.

"…" Nipa stood still, her eyes growing moist.

A warm, enthusiastic arm flung itself around Nipa's shoulder, "Nipa, that's great! You troublemaker!" It was Eila, light blonde locks billowing behind her, like a wheat field when a breeze swept over. She sincerely felt happy for Nipa. A smile appeared on her face, as brilliant as sunshine.

"Please don't do something like that anymore. I've had enough of you getting into life-and-death situations!" said Laura with her hands on her hips. Nonchalant as her voice was, her love and care for her comrade were still palpable.

"Yes...!" Indeed, it's really good...! Nipa murmured inside. Her left cheek, with the slap mark still on, no longer hurt. Wrapped in Eila's arm, she smiled with tear-filled eyes.

For the following 10 days, Nipa stayed in the detention barracks and cleaned the hangar and toilets, as Commander Luukkanen told her. As soon as the punishment was over, Nipa immediately went to the hospital to visit Hasse — strictly speaking, she was dragged there by Eila. On the other hand, it was the commander's order. In fact, Nipa had not got the nerve to face Hasse.

"Hey there, Hasse! How ya doin'?" The door of the ward was snapped open, revealing a brilliantly smiling Eila with a banquet in her hand and a silently blushing Nipa looking away with her hands hidden behind her back.

"Oh, Illu, Nipa, you came to check on me?" The two unexpected guests seemed to brighten Hasse's heart a lot. There was a plaster on her cheek and half her head was in bandages. She was wearing a T-shirt with a thin coat draped around her shoulders.

"How are your wounds?" asked Eila as she put the flowers from the banquet into a vase on a cupboard near Hasse's bed.

"I'm fine now. Though they asked me to rest for a little while." After a short pause, Hasse continued with an apologetic expression on her face, "Sorry, it will take some time, but I'll definitely come back."

It pained Eila to see her friend having their regiment on her mind even when she herself was in such an unwell state. At the same time, the thought of having to fight in a sky without Hasse for quite a while saddened her, too. She unwittingly put on a sad face, "Oh… Well, a small nap here and there will definitely make you feel better."

Nipa, hiding behind Eila, had been avoiding eye contact with Hasse and fidgeting uneasily with her hands still behind her back. Eila noticed it.

Eila made a knowing smile and let out a sigh.

"Sorry, I need to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back," said Eila as she walked towards the door.

Nipa panicked, "Wait—"

Before she could ask Eila to let her join her, Eila cut her off with a quick motion.

"I'm leaving it to you!" Eila moved closer to Nipa, leaned in and whispered to her ears, before she said loudly to both Nipa and Hasse in a sing-song voice, "Well then, take your time!" As soon as she finished speaking, she exited the room and closed the door.

'After all I couldn't come up with any excuse other than nature's call,' Eila thought. She was never a good liar and had a tendency to call a spade a spade, which caused her to inadvertently hurt others' feelings very often, but at the same time, it brought her friends as artless, straightforward as her. In her life she hadn't experienced any bit of the dark side of female friendships — bitches, gossiping, backstabbing, and whatnot.

Nature's call was really a useful excuse, Eila thought. Bodily functions had brought many inconveniences to human beings, especially soldier girls. An unwanted call of nature was definitely one of the most annoying things during battle time. When a witch activated her magic, her body would go through a process which also happened during sleep — producing antidiuretic hormone and the kidneys, as a result, generated less urine than usual. Witches also applied some methods to try their best to prevent every kind of "embarrassment," such as reducing the amount of the water they took in and paying a visit to the toilet before a sortie. However, sometimes it was still hard to avoid, especially during long-time tasks such as night patrols or fierce battles lasting for several hours or even a whole day where there was no time for a bathroom break. At such moments, Eila always wished she had had a magic black hole in her body to absorb all the waste materials produced in the process of metabolism. However, bodily functions didn't always bring only troubles. If there really were a magic black hole inside her body, she might not have been able to come up with a reason to excuse herself this time. This train of thoughts put a smile on her face. Since she left the ward, she had been paying attention to the interior of it with one ear on the door.

"Well, Hasse…," Nipa finally opened her mouth, breaking the suffocating silence. She unhided her hands from her back, revealing a package in her hands. She handed it to Hasse.

A gleam of brightness crossed Hasse's face, "Is this for me? May I open it?"

Nipa nodded with her face reddened, still not daring to make eye contact with Hasse.

Hasse opened the package. It was a Suomus Air Force uniform, identical to Nipa's.

"Uh… Your clothing got all torn up…so…I…" Nipa kept her mouth moving, fighting her nervousness.

"Awesome! It's the same as yours! I'm really happy! Thank you, Nipa!" Hasse unreservedly showed her love for this gift.

Hasse's reaction was way better than expected, which pumped a stream of courage into Nipa's heart. She made up her mind and took a deep breath, her palms sweating, "I-I have to apologize for a lot I've done, Hasse. Until now…until now, I was so rude to you. Sorry, Hasse…"

Hasse pulled her shirt, which was a little loosen. Silence fell again.

But the silence was soon replaced by a warm smile and some warm words.

"I'm sorry, too. You see, I want to talk with you about a lot of things," Hasse started to talk again, her handsome boyish face reflected in Nipa's pupils. "So… Would you like to stay for a bit and chat with me?"

Hasse sounded choked up. Nipa checked her face and found out there were tears in her smiling eyes, and…Nipa couldn't see anything more, because some warm liquid started to fill her own eyes, blurring Hasse's sitting form in the bed. Not until now did Nipa realize that she could look Hasse in the face again — she no longer had to secretly observe Hasse's reaction by sneaking glances at her.

"Sure…!" Nipa replied with a strong nod, wiping off her own tears with her hand.

The minute hand of the wall clock had just traveled one twelfth of the dial, but it was the longest five minutes Nipa had ever experienced. Ever since she stepped into the hospital, she never stopped worrying. What if Hasse kept a poker face and refused to talk to her? How would she react to the present? What if she took it to be a favor-currying gift or just for courtesy?

These days, a strong sense of guilt had been eating Nipa up inside out. She had decided to give Hasse a good apology ever since she read the battle reports. Not until she put it into action did she realize it took even more courage than she thought.

As for Hasse, she never ever harbored any hard feelings toward Nipa. Indeed, in the beginning, she got very hurt from Nipa's reaction, but after many self-reflections she did in the nights spent alone in the ward, she found out she failed to notice Nipa's feelings all along and some of her behaviors out of kindness inadvertently hurt her. And today, seeing Nipa paying a visit and apologizing to her in the fight against her nervousness made Hasse feel the wall between them had fallen down, bringing tears to her eyes.

It was a severe winter; the branches outside the window and the exterior of the window frames were covered with a thick layer of snow, but both Nipa and Hasse didn't feel the slightest of chill, not just because they were wearing warm clothes and staying in a warm room. Especially for Nipa, all the unease haunting her these days finally reached an end, replaced by the joy from a regianed, strengthened friendship. Nipa felt a strong stream of warmth gushing from the bottom of her heart, like a fountain. Maybe Hasse was feeling the same way.

The gentle winter sunshine traveled through the window next to Hasse's bed, caressing the cheeks of the two twin-like girls. In the bath of golden light, teardrops glittered on their corners of eyes and fascinating smiles blossomed on their faces.

The cupboard beside the bed was under the sunshine's care, too. Beside the vase were two miniature flags with Nipa's and Hasse's personal insignia respectively on each of them. Nipa's was a ferret with a small moon; Hasse's was a Eurasian eagle-owl with a small cross. They both consisted of white patterns and sky blue background, the representative hue of Suomus Air Force, giving a feel of cool weather. A vase of flowers and two emblems were soaked in golden light, creating a harmonious scene, accompanied by two girls' chatter and laughter.

Eila, who had been peeping behind the door, also smiled in satisfaction, silently closed the door and walked down the corridor. Her upbringings told her that eavesdropping was bad. The reason why she stayed here until this moment was because she wanted to make sure Nipa did not screw up. Now that it was confirmed that everything was going well, she had no reason to stay on. Of course, she was curious about Nipa and Hasse's ongoing chat, but she would not probe into it if they had no intention to share it with her. With those thoughts in mind, Eila disappeared around the turn at the end of the corridor in lighthearted steps with a smile on her face.

Another's note: I finally managed to word the scene where Nipa and Hasse make up! By the way, the antidiuretic hormone thing is headcanoned by me! I was always wondering what if they need to go to the bathroom in the middle of a long flight? Therefore, after I learned that the human body will produce antidiuretic hormone during sleep, I immediately applied it in this condition! Surprised at how I sneaked such a long paragraph in when running into our protagonist's "I need to go to the bathroom" moment?