Just then, the plane’s wing snapped in half. The plane began to roll, and seconds later, it was in pieces. Sousuke and Tessa were blown out the open hatch, into the void. Tessa tried to hold tight to his arm, but the buffeting winds and centripetal force proved too much for her, and she ended up letting go.
“Tessa!!” The sound of the explosion and the roaring wind consumed even Sousuke’s own cry. Her small body, batted around by the air currents, grew further and further away in his vision.
The shattered fuselage, the snapped wings. Tessa was falling amidst the fragments. Things were burning all around her, but the wind remained terribly cold. The faint light of the moon illuminated the place where the ocean met the horizon in the darkness. How long would it be until she hit the water? Her consciousness grew hazy as gravity pulled her relentlessly downward. Yet, she was able to notice a figure approaching; he was gliding through the night air, carefully manipulating the wind with his limbs.
It was a skydiving technique.
Sagara Sousuke’s body slammed into Tessa’s. The two tumbled through open space, clinging to each other. It surely didn’t change the fact that they were doomed, but he seemed determined to struggle to the end. He moved his mouth close to her ear, and screamed something to her. The touch of his lips against her earlobe... it was a sweet sensation. Yet the words themselves were anything but: “Hold on to me, tightly!” he yelled. “Don’t let go!”
“What?” Tessa cried back.
“Brace for impact!” Sousuke told her.
It was then that she noticed the form of the white AS approaching, consuming her vision to the right. The Arbalest, having detached its wing pack and gone into freefall, was slowly growing closer. Just as she grabbed Sousuke’s chest, they slammed into the giant’s hands. The AS had caught up with them and scooped them up from the side.
The impact forced the air from Tessa’s lungs in a groan. Her head was swimming, and she couldn’t tell which way was up.
Sousuke shouted again. “Open!”
There was one final jolt. With Tessa and Sousuke held tight in its hands, the Arbalest deployed the parachute sack on its back. As she watched a parachute many times larger than a human-sized one unfurl into the sky, Tessa reflected that it was a miracle she hadn’t bit her tongue.
The wind died down instantly, and the area around them grew silent. The wreckage of the burning plane had passed over them, to plunge into the sea hundreds of meters away. The Arbalest, holding them both in its hands, slowly descended.
《It’s a night of close shaves,》 the AS remarked through external speakers. 《I performed a few rough calculations, and the chance of success for your nonsense mission was one in 256. Even with the Christmas miracle effect on our side—》
“Shut up,” Sousuke demanded curtly.
《Roger.》 The AI fell silent again, and the only sound became an intermittent flapping noise as their parachute fluttered in the wind.
“Colonel. Were you hurt?” Sousuke asked Tessa eventually.
She had been staring into space, but the words broke her out of her trance. “What? Ah... a few bruises, most likely... but I think I’m all right.”
“Good,” Sousuke said with a sigh of relief. “The squad would kill me if anything happened to you.”
“I wonder about that...” Tessa said, a bit sulky now that the initial relief had passed. “I’m sure they’ll act very concerned, but they don’t really care about what happens to a useless half-wit like me.”
“Colonel...”
“Yes, yes. I know. I don’t really mean it. I just...” Tessa swallowed her words. She felt two inches tall. Why is it always Sousuke who comes to save me like this? she wondered. If it were anyone else—Clouseau, or Mao—I wouldn’t have to feel this way...
Is it really all right for you to put yourself in danger for someone like me? Do I really have that much value to you? I can’t, can I? Because you wouldn’t do anything that would make her sad... Is it comradeship? Duty? Confidence that you’ll return alive? It was probably a combination of all of them, but that fact just made her even more depressed. He wasn’t here for the reasons she wanted him to be: out of an earnest love for her.
When Harris had taken her hostage, in the end, he’d taken the shot. If it had been Kaname instead of her there, he probably wouldn’t have been able to, even if it meant that she died as a result. There was a difference at play here. A definitive one.
There’s nothing to be done, Tessa thought, remembering Captain Sailor’s words. He’s right; the longing is entirely on my end, not his. It’s not me who has an instinctive grip on his heart, but her. The world she’s a part of. I understand, because I find that world dazzling and alluring, as well...
Can what I feel truly be called love? Can anyone testify that I’m not simply looking for somebody to escape into? Can anyone testify that I truly love this man, right here, right now? Unable to bear the silence any longer, she asked him, “Sagara-san.”
“Yes?”
“Do you love Kaname-san?”
After a pause, he said, “I think so.”
“More than me?” she specified.
Sousuke’s face tensed. But after some consideration, he answered clearly: “Yes.”
Tessa had known it was coming, but his words still hit her like a physical blow. It was perfectly natural that he would say so, though. Sagara Sousuke wasn’t the kind of man to dissemble when the truth was clear. That was part of his appeal; it was a cruel fact of the world.
Tessa turned her eyes down and whispered, “You said it so easily.”
“I’m sorry,” Sousuke simply told her.
She’d had a silly fantasy she’d been clinging to these past few days. She’d dreamed that they’d have the party with everyone at the base, and after the feast was over, she’d find a way to be alone
