Kou and his companions scrutinized the revised strategy that was sent by Rick in their hangar carrier’s briefing room.

With Astraea’s support, Kou slowly but surely digested the ins and outs of the plan. Seeing the big picture was something unrelated to him anyway. He only needed to understand his part and do it well.

「So the operation has been moved up to tomorrow huh. What do you call it again? Blitzkrieg?」

「No, that’s not it. Surprise attacks aren’t included in the plan. They are probably worried that the enemies have already noticed us.」

Aimer answered Kou’s question. It was probably Master who was lecturing him again though.

「In any case, it’s important that we don’t give the enemies time to prepare. Soldiers value speed or something like that nyaa.」

They finished confirming the details of the entire plan. Kou’s questions were mostly answered by Nyanta and Aki.

Voy was busy with maintaining Unit 5 in the hangar.

He was checking out the condition of the new battle rifle and the additional armor.

「 Long-range combat huh. Can I really do it properly?」

「There’s no need for you to forcibly engage in long-range combat. We’re going to be conducting urban warfare during this operation. In your case Kou, it would be more effective if you focused on your usual style of close combat while using the buildings for cover.」

「But I feel like I gotta make effective use of the rifle you guys made for me.」

「That’s no good! Please don’t get held up by the thought of using it. We can make new weapons for you anytime you need one. Please don’t place too much focus on the rifle and just do what you’re accustomed to doing.」

Aki implored Kou to reconsider his line of thinking. She knew of Kou’s easily fixated personality.

「But it was made by Nyanta and Aki, so....」

「Like Aki said, that’s no good nyaa! We’re not saying you can just throw it away whenever, but if it’s lost, then we can just make something even better for you nyaa.」

「I-Is that so?」

Kou had no choice but to capitulate to the unusually angry Nyanta.

「It’s okay if you used it as a makeshift shield. It would be a lot better than trying to fight using a style you’re not used to.」

「Okay, I got it. Thanks, guys.」

Kou realized the two really were worried about him, so he decided to make sure they don’t have to as much as he can.

「Confirmed updated operation files. There seem to be composition changes made to part of Metal Iris and Storm Hound’s teams. They have exchanged some troops with each other.」

Aimer announced to everyone. Aimer was tasked with serving as Kou’s operator. Kou had misgivings about making a young girl handle such a demanding job, but Aki and the others persuaded him to agree, so he accepted in the end.

Aki and the rest argued that Aimer should play a role in the operation even if she wasn’t going to the frontlines herself.

She even proposed to ride in an armored vehicle to directly support him out on the field, but Kou categorically refused.

He opted for having her give out remote guidance from their hangar carrier. This was also largely for his peace of mind.

「So we’re going for quickly capturing the control center and the A-Carbuncle power generator huh. It does seem that things would get easier once we’ve captured it though.」

「And all we need to focus on is reaching our real objective as soon as we can. But if we want to capture the control center quickly, we’ll have to concentrate our forces first.」

「So we’re going to act together until halfway into the operation, right?」

「Yes. The enemies aren’t aware that our goal is freeing Asia after all. The control center capture operation is basically a diversion. If all goes well, we can take over fast and then move to a mopping-up operation afterward.」

「I hope I’m just being too pessimistic but doesn’t that sound a bit of a tall order?」

「Entering the Fortress Area alone seems to be quite the challenge after all.」

「The enemy also employs Underground Forces too nyaa.」

The three girls were worried about the possibility of engaging in combat with other humans. They were worried if a young Japanese man would be able to overcome the stress from fighting other humans.

Kou just laughed ambiguously in response, making them worry even more.

「I think I’ll check up on how Voy’s doing for a bit.」

「Alright.」

Aimer answered and saw Kou off.

After he made his way out of the room, the three girls started chatting among themselves.

「Rescuing Asia. It’s better if Kou remains unaware. He doesn’t need to know just how much people yearn for it.」

Aimer sighed. Due to Master’s memories, she had sufficient knowledge regarding Planet Asia’s current situation.

「Storm Hound’s response was rather quick.」

「Jenny sent a transmission airing out her complaints about being worked to the bone nyaa. I’ll tell Kou about it later nyaa.」

「The more people know about it.... the higher the risk of information being leaked.」

Aimer sighed again. She didn’t hold much trust for other humans.

「I think Storm Hound is being a little too into it. But it’s about rescuing our formerly missing Creator after all. I understand how they must be feeling all too well.」

「Metal Iris got a bit overwhelmed when they found out our real goal though nyaa.」

「That’s only natural, considering Planet Ashia’s current precarious situation.」

Aimer responded glumly. The coming operation can even be described as a decisive battle for the future of the planet.

「Kou really hates the idea of us going out to the frontlines.」

Unlike Nyanta and Aki, Aimer was capable of piloting a Silhouette.

But Kou would definitely never allow her to pilot one.

「At least Voy managed to convince him to let him deploy as well nyaa. He just argued it was a man’s job to fight on a battlefield or something along those lines.」

「But because Kou hasn’t developed any armed vehicles pilotable by Familiars yet, it looks like Voy isn’t gonna be able to fight in battle anyway.」

「Actually, he managed to convince Kou to let him bring out ‘that’ thing they developed on a whim nyaa.」

Aki smiled bitterly. She was truly grateful that Kou takes good care of them and treasures them, but it didn’t sit well with her to just watch as the person himself faces all the danger on his own.

「All we can do is to keep upgrading Kou’s weapons. I’m gonna place my heart and soul into each individual round. I’m gonna do my absolute best. I swear on my pride as a Wildcat.」

Nyanta was a Therianthrope who specialized in customizing ballistic firearms – commonly known as a Wildcat. She was also responsible for handloading ammo. She adjusts the maximum number of rounds and rate of fire according to the objective.

It was a profession that was created to adjust standard ballistic firearms depending on mission objectives but was regarded as largely unnecessary in the past.

A long time ago, she was in the same boat as the gunsmith Aki. However, she still held great pride in her profession.

It was frustrating for her to be unable to enter the battlefield with Kou. So all she can do was to take the guns Aki creates and optimize them as much as possible for Kou’s use.

All to keep that close combat idiot safe whenever he had no choice but to engage in a firefight.

She will put all of her effort and feelings into her work to help him as much as possible through the only means available to her.

Kou’s figure was displayed on the monitor in front of her. He was performing maintenance on his Silhouette together with Voy.

「I’ll let you go as wild as possible, neesan. I’ll always reinforce the barrel of my guns to the limit so feel free to do what you do best.」

「Kou’s a bit clumsy so he can’t handle multiple different weapons. So I’ve raised the accuracy of each round to the limit while not sacrificing power. I’ve reduced the caliber of the bullets a bit in order to do that.」

「You both did your best, Nyanta, Aki. The rest is Master and my job.」

Aimer, who was staring fixedly at the monitor as well, softly muttered with conviction.

Kou finished performing the final checks on Unit 5 together with Voy.

There were three key differences from before it was upgraded. The damaged head had been repaired, and it was equipped with a large thruster pack to increase speed and mobility. The great sword was stored via a sword rack on the back of the machine.

It was also equipped with additional armor that was designed not to impair mobility and range of motion. Seen from the side, it looked very much like a medieval knight or armored warrior.

It also now sported large shields with auxiliary thrusters on both shoulders that were equipped in consideration of engaging in close combat while in the waki-gamae stance. They really made it look more like an armored samurai in medieval times.

And it was also equipped with a new weapon, which was a large rifle-shaped two-handed 90 mm cannon. It was classified as a large caliber battle rifle with an emphasis on range. The number of rounds it can carry was 20.

It was possible to fire it with one hand, but it was basically a weapon a Silhouette held with both hands to shoot.

Voy explained the details to Kou further. If it was downscaled to a size that a human could wield, it could be likened to a 12.7 mm assault rifle. Kou didn’t know, but that was a large-caliber rifle that could be said to be excessive for use in anti-personnel combat.

「Aki created the base model and it was modified to equip Wildcat cartridges made by Nyanta. Both the bullets and the gun barrel are extra special. Aren’t you gonna name it, Kou?」

「Let’s see.. How about AK2? I think it’s a good name.」

「What’s it mean?」

「Uh, it’s kinda a combination of Aki and Nyanta’s names. Err, AKNyan?」

「That’s one weird pun, man....」

「Yeah, it is, isn’t it?」

「Well, I think those two would be happy though. It’s decided then. This rifle will be named the AK2.」

Voy entered the rifle’s new name designation on his terminal.

「The only thing left is to wait for my chance to shine in the limelight huh.」

「I really don’t wanna deploy that weird weapon if I can help it though....」

Kou actually created just one new weapon himself for the coming operation.

The only problem was that it was too chuuni-ish. The moment he finished making the darn weapon, he suddenly felt afraid and ashamed of his own idea.

He tried to seal it away in a dark corner forever, but he was found midway by Voy, and in the end, he was forced to bring it with them on the hangar carrier.

「The enemy’s defenses are quite tough. As long as we can’t prepare a decent combat engineer squad, there’s nothing wrong with having that on hand, right?」

「I understand. If we can’t break through via frontal assault, I’ll be counting on you.」

「You got it.」

The questionable weapon was currently parked quietly behind Unit 5.