Good Luck, Yukikaze

“You said before that this is an artificially created space. How do you know that?” Rei asked.

“Because I doubt anything like this would exist naturally. If the JAM control it, then it stands to reason that they created it too.”

“That’s a cool assessment to make.”

“What are you planning to do here, Captain?”

“Learn what the JAM’s intentions are,” Rei said. “That’s why the SAF put this operation in motion, although the JAM seem to have made the move before we could. I guess you could say we got our wish. Saves us a bunch of work, this way.”

“Did the SAF get some overtures beforehand that the JAM would be open to contact like this?” Lieutenant Katsuragi asked.

“It’d be natural to think that.”

“To think? Are you avoiding the question?”

“You don’t work for Colonel Rombert anymore, meaning you have no right to cross-examine me. Keep your position in mind, Lieutenant.”

“I’m just asking out of personal curiosity, Captain.”

There’s a way of asking things when you genuinely just want to know about them, Rei thought. Still, as much as the way Katsuragi was doing it rubbed him the wrong way, Rei figured he’d sound much the same if he were in the lieutenant’s place. Rei snorted out a laugh as he thought about it. The lieutenant’s questions weren’t about some duty to figure out what was going on. He really was a lot like Rei in that regard. Besides, Rei had a feeling that Katsuragi was going to get nervous if he didn’t have something to talk about.

“What’s so funny?”

“You just remind me of when Colonel Rombert interrogated me. But yeah, you aren’t him. Just go on, Lieutenant.”

“If you people did receive overtures from the JAM before, then that’s a serious matter,” Lieutenant Katsuragi said. “The other units in the FAF don’t know that, do they? Is the SAF trying to set up some sort of private arrangement between itself and the JAM?”

“Overtures were made in advance,” Rei replied coolly. “But to Yukikaze, not us humans. If that weren’t the case, Yukikaze wouldn’t have told me not to attack and that she was going to try communicating with the JAM.”

“Oh... Is that what that was all about.”

“The SAF theorized that the JAM wanted to make contact with Yukikaze because she made that prediction herself shortly before we left on this sortie.”

Yukikaze performed unmanned sorties several times before now, and it’s possible the JAM had made their overtures to her each time, Rei thought. That was how she knew that the JAM desired to “receive” them. He could imagine that the JAM had made clear their conditions for contact with them — she had to be piloted, not unmanned.

“That’s why I was prepared for this,” Rei continued. “But I don’t know what the JAM are going to say to us. Is that good enough for you, Lieutenant?”

“What do you plan to say to the JAM?”

“I want to ask them what they think I am.”

“And after that?” Katsuragi asked.

“Why, out of all the other planes in other units, they want to make contact with Yukikaze. I want to know what they think she is too.”

“Do you only care about you and Yukikaze, Captain Fukai? There have to be more important things to ask them.”

“Like what?”

“Like why the JAM invaded in the first place. That’s what the SAF and the FAF both want to know. Are you serious? Do you really fly Yukikaze for such personal reasons?”

“Yeah,” Rei said. “What about it? Is it wrong to?”

“Is it wrong? That answer is so disgusting, I don’t even know where to begin,” the lieutenant replied.

“That’s not how you really feel about it,” Rei said.

“How do you mean?”

“It’s not that you aren’t answering me out of disgust. It’s because you don’t know how to judge my answer and you don’t understand how you feel about it. You don’t have a personal question to ask the JAM, and that disgust you claim to feel only comes from your being a soldier in the FAF. You’re acting the way you think a good soldier should, but you don’t really care. So do me a favor and stop trying to impress me.”

Lieutenant Katsuragi was silent.

“Think about it for yourself, Lieutenant. I’m pretty sure you know how you feel.”

Captain Foss and her therapy must have had an even stronger influence on me than I ever imagined, Rei thought. But nothing pissed him off more than hearing someone talking as pretentiously as Lieutenant Katsuragi was; the lieutenant wasn’t even using his own words. All it did was underline how mentally immature he really was. It was all Rei could do to keep from just telling the guy to fuck off. The foul language he wanted to hurl at him was the same abuse he wanted to hurl at himself.

“Does everyone in the SAF fly for the same reasons you do?” the lieutenant finally asked.

“I couldn’t care less why they do it,” Rei replied.

“So, the SAF is... yeah. That’s fine, isn’t it?”

You draw the most strength when you fight for yourself, Rei thought, as he silently nodded. He looked outside. The scenery hadn’t changed. Maybe the JAM were carrying out a cunning plan just to annoy him. Rei was concerned about their remaining fuel, but then noticed they hadn’t consumed nearly as much as he’d thought.

“It doesn’t matter what motivates your unit’s pilots to fly, as long as they achieve their strategic goals,” Lieutenant Katsuragi said. “If you find out what the JAM think of you and Yukikaze, we can figure out what their strategic objectives are and develop strategies to anticipate their behavior.” He paused a moment. “I was really shocked when you just coolly said ‘yeah’ like that, Captain. I just couldn’t come up with anything to answer that.”

“You would have said the same thing if you’d been in my position. There was nothing shocking about it. You and I are a lot alike.”

“I was shocked because saying something like that in any other unit would have earned you a trip to the firing squad. If the SAF permits conversations like this to happen every day, it’s in real trouble. Well, I suppose I don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Do you have a meeting arranged with Colonel Rombert?” Rei asked.

“No, but I figure the colonel will approach me somehow. Still, even if he does, I don’t plan to tell him about this. Besides, considering the situation, I doubt he’d believe me even if I did.”

“That colonel wouldn’t ignore intelligence like this just because he didn’t believe it himself. He’d probably anticipate how well you can utilize your intelligence network and demand objective data.”

“Hm...”

Right now, Katsuragi is probably doubting what his five senses are telling him about this whole experience, Rei thought. If they made it back in one piece, he was definitely going to need the data Yukikaze had collected in order to process it.

“Don’t keep monitoring the instruments,” Rei ordered. “Keep a visual watch on our surroundings. No matter what happens, don’t look at the instruments. I’ll tell you again if I need you to run the EW systems. Trust your own eyes. Now, repeat what I just told you back to me.”

“Maintain a visual watch on our surroundings, don’t look at the instruments until the pilot tells me otherwise. That is all.”

“You left out the part about trusting your own eyes.”

“That was part of your orders?”

“Yeah.”

“Trust my own eyes. That is all,” Lieutenant Katsuragi said.