NIKKE, When the Milky Way Blossoms

"Please."

……

……

"Commander? Commander! Wake up! The operator says the rescue force has reached the outskirts of K region."

In the empty underground parking garage, Anise's voice echoed tirelessly.

"We've only known each other for half a day. It would be very ungentlemanly for you to die like this, Commander."

“Anis…”

"Commander?"

Phoenix, lying flat on the ground, glanced at the chestnut-haired girl with annoyance. Seeing her grinning face, he couldn't help but say, "If you bother me again... I'll go back and report you to headquarters."

"Huh? Don't be so stingy, Commander!"

Amidst Anis's playful exclamation, Lapi, who insisted on standing guard outside the underground parking garage, felt his heart...

—So tired.

Even though everyone was trapped in the ruins of Lecher's city, and danger could strike at any moment, why did she have the absurd illusion of taking children on a spring outing?

"Commander, given your current physical condition, I hope you can speak less..."

Rumble, rumble, rumble——

Before Lhabi could finish his instructions, a faint engine sound could be heard coming from afar, drifting towards the garage.

Listen closely, and the sound of the engine is like a huge waterfall, deep and heavy.

"Everyone, be on alert!"

The roar of the engine suddenly made Lhapi's previously relaxed state of mind tense up.

Are they support troops?

Or is it some kind of rare Lecher individual?

The girl's thoughts had barely formed when, before she could even process or react, she heard an unbearable, piercing electrical current and static coming through her earpiece.

"Buzz buzz buzz... This is... buzz buzz buzz... Vanguard... buzz... listen... buzz buzz..."

Very good. Although we can't understand what they're saying, they can speak human language, which at least proves they're not Lecher.

"This is the vanguard force. Please respond."

Considering the commander's nearly dried-out vocal cords, Lapi volunteered to take on the role of liaison, attempting to communicate with the other party using the most official language.

"To reiterate, this is the vanguard force. Please respond if you hear me."

Rumble, rumble, rumble——

As the girl continued to ask questions, the distant, thunderous roar of an engine grew increasingly impatient. Meanwhile, the anxious static in the communication suddenly vanished.

Combining the two, Lhabi didn't need to spend too much time thinking about it to conclude that the engine sound must have come from the support troops, whose leader lacked patience and experience.

Did you really not expect that making such a big fuss would bring unnecessary trouble?

"Everyone, remain on high alert!"

Just as he finished giving the order, Lhapi realized that the vanguard now had a commander, so he quickly added a sentence.

"Commander, please give the order."

"..."

"commander?"

"..."

"Um... Lapi, it seems that the Commander has fainted, but don't worry too much. I touched his neck and the Commander still has a heartbeat."

Lhabi: "..."

……

……

Willpower, once it weakens, will collapse like dominoes, slowly but surely, until the last one falls.

But one commander was different.

When he saw a green dot rapidly approaching him in his mind's eye, his willpower did not collapse like dominoes, but rather crumbled instantly, like a dilapidated building that the engineering department was planning to demolish.

however……

A single injection of adrenaline taught Phoenix a lesson about the mysteries of the human body.

"Hiss—whoosh—!"

Heavy breathing suddenly appeared in the underground parking garage. At that moment, the man who had just woken up from his coma felt as if all the blood in his body had been illegally replaced with espresso, and every pump of his heart felt like it was going to burst his blood vessels in his brain.

"Ah! Commander, you're awake. How are you feeling? Is anything bothering you?"

"As a patient, you must tell your seniors if you feel unwell. Commander, please do not hide your condition!"

"Um... is it really okay to have saline solution and adrenaline injected at the same time?"

"Commander, we are safe for now, you don't need to worry."

Amidst the chattering questions and expressions of concern, Phoenix's vision slowly regained focus. Then, upon seeing the composition of the support force, he nearly fainted again.

An extreme dessert lover who loves motorcycles, a hospital idol who admires his seniors, and a cunning doctor who is also a senior.

Three people, all using shotguns!

Including their own team member, Lorf, the team consisted of eight people, half of whom were shotgunners.

With such a lousy lineup, even Lecher would shake his head.

Chapter 6 Crisis

In the dead of night, the city ruins, devoid of any lights, gleamed faintly with a silvery-blue glow under the moonlight.

Above the black curtain, a dazzling yet tranquil Milky Way hangs in the sky, its scattered, shimmering pearls adding a touch of fluorescent blue to the boundless night.

Even Nikki, who frequently comes to the ground to carry out missions like Lapi and Anis, was still mesmerized by this breathtakingly vast starry sky.

"The ground... is even more beautiful than described in the stories."

Wearing white cat-ear headphones and with her hair tied in a single ponytail, the pink-haired girl Pepper looked like a child seeing a beloved toy. Her cherry blossom-like eyes sparkled with a bright and lively light, unwilling to take her gaze away from the sky.

　Not to mention her, even Dr. Merri, who usually liked to squint, had opened her hazy purple eyes and smiled as she sighed:

"Yes, it's a beautiful view that's perfect for calming patients down."

"No... as expected of Senior Merri!"

Upon hearing Merri's unintentional remark, Pepper snapped out of her daze, clenched her fists and placed them on her chest, looking at her senior with admiration.

"Even while admiring the night sky, you can think of a way to comfort the patients so quickly!"

"Actually... I was just making a casual remark."

"This shows that Senior Merri always has the patients' best interests at heart! I will remember this, Senior!"

Over here, two logistics and medical personnel from the Six-Winged Angels unit are chatting away.

　Over there, a commander, oblivious to romance, wore a blank and lifeless expression. Carrying a 1.6-meter-long, 21mm-caliber anti-material sniper rifle, he walked like a zombie at the very front of the road, his mind filled with images of Pepper and Merri demonstrating how to load shotgun ammunition not long ago.

To be honest, Merri's loading speed is barely acceptable.

This is largely thanks to the feeding system of the shotgun she was using, which employs a horizontal magazine similar to the P90. The reloading method is not much different from that of the P90 submachine gun, and may even be more convenient.

And Pepper...

Ugh--

He was just a doctor living on an ark on Earth, and now he's been transferred to the surface because of me, which is already my own doing. If I were to force him to know this or that, it would be a bit ungrateful.

"By the way, Commander, speaking of which, you really did see a large number of Lecher groups in K-8?"

Following Phoenix for a while, Anise finally couldn't suppress her doubts and asked the same question that Labi and the others had wanted to ask for a long time.

“I saw them from afar.” Phoenix didn’t hide anything and admitted, “Based on my visual estimation, there must be at least two hundred of them. Would you call that a large batch?”

"Two hundred?! Commander, does that mean you escaped right under the noses of two hundred Lechers?"

"Commander, although I don't want to question this data, two hundred is still a bit much..."

"Wait, wait, wait a minute! Commander, do you mean the eight of us are going to investigate the lair of two hundred Lechers?"

The moment they learned that they would be facing two hundred Rachels, Niki, including Lapi, stopped in their tracks, their complex gazes fixed on the back of their commander who was still leading the way.

Then, they saw their commander slowly turn his head, his pair of emerald green eyes radiating a dangerous aura under the moonlight, like will-o'-the-wisps or the form of a ferocious beast, leaving an unforgettable impression on every girl.

"When did I say there were two hundred?"

call--

Upon hearing the commander deny what he had just said, Anise's previously tense shoulders relaxed considerably, and her slightly trembling chest seemed to silently express the shock she had just experienced.