well as this aircraft, why would you go that far to save Akira? Are you that close?”

“Hm? It’s simply because there’s no unused powered suit left.”

Nelia only said so and jumped out of the aircraft. Sara could not understand that reply at all.

“Elena, what does that mean?”

“No idea.”

Elena had the same confused look as Sara.

If there was still an unused powered suit back in the forward base, Nelia would have opted to use that instead. But due to Inabe’s order, all the powered suits were distributed to the powered suit squads that were dispatched with the reinforcement Hunters to take control of the ensuing chaos in the expedition area.

Not to mention, at the moment, Nelia prioritized Akira more than the powered suit squad where she was originally assigned to.

Shikarabe then said.

“So then, Elena, where is Akira? You still can’t find him? We don’t know his exact location, right? I hope we’re not just flying around randomly hoping to spot him somewhere.”

“We’ll be doing this until that girl decides to go back. It’s not like we don’t have any hints at all. I’m using the powerful radar installed on this aircraft to look for the signal from the information terminal lent to Akira. It can use both long-range and short-range communication frequency. But, if only this jamming could go away... I would be able to quickly detect his whereabouts...”

Elena knitted her eyebrows. Seeing that, Shikarabe also frowned but for a completely different reason.

[So basically, we’ll keep going on as long as we have the ammo and enough energy for the aircraft, huh... I guess it was a mistake accepting this request.]

Due to his job from Drankam, Shikarabe could not join the expedition, but he was still posted as a reserve Hunter at the base. Although he was then sent to join the reinforcement team under City Management, he felt like he would be sent to save Katsuya. He was going to be tasked to save a boy who made rash decisions like it was his bread and butter. Thus, he did not like that post at all.

That was when Elena called him, Shikarabe did not think much and quickly accepted the request to save Akira. He wanted to get out there without waiting for the rest of the reinforcement team, he rather chose to go to look for Akira instead of helping take control of the expedition area. That was why he did not expect to be loaned such powerful guns and a transport aircraft. The furthest he could have expected was this mysterious girl that accompanied him.

Shikarabe already heard from Elena and Sara about the invisible flying drones encircling the expedition area. They allowed people in but not out. However, either it was because the flying aircraft was out of their expectation or that they did not allow anyone who once got out to get in again, those monsters immediately attacked the aircraft when they got close.

He had no wish to blame it on Elena or anything, but it still caught him off-guard. The battles that would have been difficult without the powerful guns continued on.

[...No matter how much I hate Katsuya, this isn’t worth it at all! I guess it has started to cause trouble for me as well, huh?]

Shikarabe regretted his decision as he continued shooting at the incoming monsters.