I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

"To think I'd be coming back here..."

"Didn’t you say the youngest didn’t have good memories of Brooklyn? Well, it’s time to add some better ones now. Let’s send those guys who didn’t even bring passports back home."

"...That might turn into a bad memory as well."

December, Early Days, Brooklyn. -1°C.

Under the dull sky, while consecutive explosions rang out, a tilt-jet lifted off from Central Park and crossed the New York Harbor in an instant, turning toward the lower part of Brooklyn and heading for the Gateway Center, a shopping mall complex.

The Icarus Gear overlaid the view of the scene below. In an instant, the entire wall of the transport plane became transparent. Thousands of large and small apartment complexes below whizzed by, tightly packed on the ground like circuits on a computer component.

About a year ago, roughly 10 to 11 months ago, I had opened my eyes somewhere down there. I thought I was recalling the terrible past, but that didn't last long.

It was partly thanks to the gear, but also because of the large sniper rifle I was holding in my gloved hands.

"By the way, did the youngest come to Manhattan from that port?"

"Yeah. It wasn’t a very good memory, but... looking back now, maybe it wasn’t as bad as it is now. These days, it’s just fire everywhere."

"Well, what can you do? If you’ve been selected as a firefighter, you have to be a firefighter. Are the charges done?"

"Almost done."@@novelbin@@

"Good. Don’t touch the charging port."

Though it was a story I had heard several times, I couldn’t help but feel drawn to it every time it came up.

The reason they kept saying it was simple. Partly because the railgun charged through microwaves, the charging part was literally glowing yellow. It was hot, and that was a warning in itself.

Thanks to the shield, I wouldn’t get burned by touching the hot parts, but it was still dangerous. One of the first warnings you learn as a child is not to touch hot things, right?

… I miss my mom.

"...Entering Fort Hamilton airspace. Was that where the youngest saved that wolf with fur flying everywhere? I can't believe that was almost half a year ago."