Vol. 1 Chapter 5 – A Mechanical Embrace

Three years of days spent fighting. They had changed a young man, who was more cowardly than anyone, yet could become strong for someone else’s sake, into a warrior of some standing. From long ago, his body alone had always been sturdy. Now, not only strength but also suppleness had been added to those muscles, giving him a physique reminiscent of a feline predator.

The best weapons factory in the city. In its director’s office stood Dias, openly and proudly. Sitting before him was the director, Doctor Marco.

Separated by the heavy, black-lacquered desk, how many times had they talked like this? Repairs and improvements for the tank. The ecology of mutants and reports of their extermination. Money, his lover and countless other things when he looked back on it. Though both men had their own circumstances and motives, they had become close enough that calling them comrades-in-arms would not be strange. And now, both of them were at a loss for words. This was the first time they had ever had this kind of conversation.

“The tank payments are complete…?”

Of course, it was better not to have debt. That was only natural. But to be honest, he had not been conscious of it at all, so being told something like that so suddenly left him unsure how to react. It was as if a goal had suddenly disappeared.

In the first place, whether the loan remained or not, what they had to do would not change. Ride the tank and hunt mutants. That was all, and at this point, he could no longer live any other way. In particular, his lover Cardiel, who had lost all four limbs, was practically destined to live together with the tank. Dias had not the slightest intention of getting off alone.

On the other hand, for Marco as well, Dias paying off his debt was inconvenient. It was unlikely that Dias and Cardiel would suddenly say they were quitting as hunters but there was a strong possibility that the frequency of their sorties would drop greatly. Until now, with their cycle of hunting and resupplying, they had gone out once every two days on average. But if they gained more breathing room, that might stretch to once a week, or even once a month.

The real combat data brought back by Dias and Cardiel had greatly advanced Marco’s research into nerve-connected prosthetic limbs, and various attempts had been made beyond integration with a tank. According to the original plan, by the time they finished paying off the debt, special prosthetic limbs should have spread throughout the world.

Centered around Marco, there should have been people with machine guns built into their arms, people with wheels attached to their legs, people integrated with tanks, and so on. An invincible army surpassing human wisdom should have been completed. It was a somewhat childish dream, but he had believed he possessed enough power to make it possible.

In reality, they were not selling very well. Nerve-connected prosthetic limbs were expensive purchases. If someone was going to get a prosthetic limb, it was only human nature to want to buy something safe, reliable, and definitely useful.

Anyone who would chase style or romance in such an expensive transaction was a truly eccentric person, and Marco, the leading example of such eccentrics, had failed to understand that point.

“You don’t understand how poor people feel.”

Dias had once told him that clearly as well.

What was necessary to spread special prosthetic limbs was establishing a mass-production system after reducing costs. And then, they had to communicate their appeal: special prosthetic limbs were this powerful.

In both senses, research and publicity, he still could not afford to let them go.

“Are you unsure what to do from here?”

“Embarrassingly, yes. Ah, that’s right. Since this is a good opportunity, it might be nice to live leisurely with Cardiel for a while. We could take walks, go shopping, go see movies…”

Not good at all, Marco gnashed his teeth inwardly. If Dias did not earn money hand over fist and spend it by the fistful, Marco would be in trouble.

“Dias-kun, don’t you have some kind of hobby?”

He hoped it would be an expensive hobby if possible, but that hope was swiftly rejected.

“Disassembling and maintaining my rifle, I suppose. I also go to the shooting range occasionally.”

“Oh, Jesus…!”

Marco cursed a god he barely even believed in. Was that really the answer a young man gave when asked about his hobbies? Unable to give up, he asked whether Dias drank alcohol or used drugs, only to be told that he had no interest in alcohol and had never used drugs except for medical treatment.

When Marco asked why, Dias said that if those things had been within reach three years ago, he would certainly have drowned himself in them and when he thought of that, he no longer felt like touching them. No matter where one poked this man, some heavy past came attached, making him hard to persuade.

Marco almost asked about playing around with women, then stopped. Even asking would be a waste of time.

“It’s not as if you go home and only fiddle with your rifle, is it? Isn’t there anything else?”

“Let’s see, other than that…”

He thought for a moment. Rather than hesitating, he seemed to be choosing his words.

“I cultivate the cabbage patch.”

“I don’t dislike stupid phrases like that.”

In short, this guy had just declared that his life consisted only of rifles and sex. Giving up on making Dias spend money through hobbies, Marco took a thick catalog from his drawer.

“How about modifying the tank? Have you never wanted to strengthen its armaments?”

“That is a good tank. I have no complaints.”

It was a pleasing thing to hear, but that was not the line Marco wanted to hear right now.

“I recommend an anti-air missile launcher. You’d be able to deal with flying mutants too.”

Dias silently shook his head. There were no medium-sized flying mutants in this region. If they were small ones, he could shoot them down with a rifle. He also wanted to avoid increasing the tank’s weight by attaching unnecessary equipment.

Since Marco was recommending it so enthusiastically, Dias flipped through the catalog out of a sense of obligation, then his hand stopped abruptly.

“Doctor, would it be possible for me to ask for another loan…?”

“Oh, did you find something good? I’ll hear you out.”

Like playing a flute to someone who refused to dance, Marco had been growing tired of the situation, and now he leaned forward.

Dias placed the open catalog on the desk, turned it around, and faced it toward Marco. The page he pointed at showed prosthetic limbs for daily life. A latest-model, five-fingered, smooth, beautiful arm for women.

Looking at the catalog page Dias was pointing to, Marco stuck out his lips in boredom.

“You want this? It’s just an ordinary prosthetic hand, you know…?”

“Ordinary? Judging from the catalog specs, it seems very high-performance.”

“That’s not what I mean. A blade doesn’t come out of the arm, and it doesn’t have a machine gun built in. It’s nothing more than a substitute for an ordinary arm.”

“That’s fine. What I expect from a prosthetic limb is for it to move like living flesh.”

Unusually, the two men’s opinions ran parallel.

Whenever their opinions differed, Dias usually yielded. He did not care much about forcing his own will through. The only time such a man refused to compromise was when Cardiel was involved, and if the matter was attaching something strange to her arm, there was no way he could simply say,『That’s fine』.

“Listen. This is my belief, but I think a prosthetic hand should not be an imitation of a human arm. It should be something beyond that.”

Using an exaggerated word like『belief』Marco wore an unusually serious expression.

“You see, I want to eliminate the very concept of physical disability. If someone’s arm is crushed or their legs won’t move, there should be no need to feel depressed. My ideal is a world where people can casually say,『This is a good opportunity, so I’ll switch to an even higher-performance arm』. What do you think? I believe you, of all people, should understand.”

Dias and Cardiel had lost their four limbs and struggled through days of despair. If it meant people would no longer suffer because of missing body parts, then that would surely be a very good thing. Dias did not mean he felt no ethical unease at all, but he did feel favorably toward the dream Marco described. However, that and this were separate matters.

“Isn’t equating high-performance with installing weapons a little too short-sighted?”

“Why!? In a crisis, your arm goes gashaan and transforms into a machine gun, then fires gagagaa. Isn’t that a man’s romance?”

Marco tried to persuade him with a poor vocabulary unworthy of a researcher. His heart seemed to have shifted fully toward that of a boy.

“Cardiel is a girl. We can’t force a boy’s romance on her. Even if I were the one getting a prosthetic limb, I would respectfully refuse.”

“Why do you reject special prosthetic limbs so much?”

“Because they’re inconvenient.”

With that single word, he cut down dreams and romance alike.

“Doctor, you don’t seem to like ordinary prosthetic limbs very much to begin with. In that case, why did you make this?”

The women’s prosthetic limb in the catalog seemed to have been made with care down to every single finger, and it even carried a sense of sensual beauty. It would surely suit Cardiel. In contrast to Marco’s bored face, Dias felt slightly elated.

“When you ask why, well… Thanks to you two, I’ve gathered a great deal of data on prosthetic limbs and my own technology has grown quite a bit too.”

Wondering what the problem was, Dias quietly listened.

“So, I don’t even know what I was thinking myself, but I suddenly decided to try making the finest prosthetic limb with cutting-edge technology and this is what came out.”

As if he did not even want the catalog in his field of vision, Marco spoke while slightly averting his gaze.

“A prosthetic limb that looks beautiful and can perform delicate movements. That’s all it is. Hey, Dias-kun, do you really want something this boring? It doesn’t transform, you know?”

Where had Marco’s original goal gone, the one where he saddled Dias with debt and made him work? His desire to increase the number of kindred spirits seemed to have taken priority.

“I like it very much. Of course, whether we purchase it or not will depend on consulting Cardiel and seeing the actual item first.”

“For daily-life prosthetic limbs, she already has some, doesn’t she?”

This is exactly why talking with Marco sometimes doesn’t work, Dias thought deeply. Did Marco really think that a woman of Cardiel’s age felt nothing about wearing oil-smelling robot arms with three claws and exposed cords? He probably did.

Having seen Cardiel up close as she covered her whole body with a mantle in embarrassment whenever they went outside, Marco’s insensitivity sometimes grated on Dias’s nerves. Though, of course, those prosthetic limbs had been given to her as compensation for cooperating with the experiments, so he was not in a position to complain about their quality.

“Also, the parts used in it are needlessly good, so it’s expensive. I’d like to give you a discount, but even this is priced right on the edge. We’ll end up in the red too. Get it?”

Ignoring the tasteless joke, Dias looked at the price in the catalog. It certainly was expensive. It could not be compared to the kind they were using now, which simply moved for the time being. But they were not the same as they had been three years ago. Now that they could hunt medium-sized mutants steadily, if they worked hard, it should not be an amount they could not pay.

“No problem. If it performs according to the specs, I think the price is reasonable.”

“It’ll probably cost four times the amount you’re imagining right now.”

“Huh?”

A further gigantic wall had been added to the wall he had steeled himself to overcome. Dias hurriedly picked up the catalog and looked at it carefully. This was the price for one arm. If they prepared all four limbs, then of course it would be close to four times the price.

Wearing a look that said,『Ah, I thought so』Marco continued.

“I wasn’t trying to trick you. Most people who come to buy prosthetic limbs buy one arm or one leg. There aren’t many people who lose all four limbs and come to buy all of them. The photo shows four limbs, hands and feet together, but it isn’t the price for the full set.”

That was certainly true, but Dias still wanted to say, 『You’re the one who cut off her left arm』.

 『…No』. Blaming the doctor for that would be misplaced. He had explained it properly. Dias had not been deceived. He had done it after accepting the situation. Even if there were parts of it he could not fully come to terms with, it was something he must never say aloud.

A short silence followed. Dias pushed down the dark emotions swirling inside him, and once he had calmed himself, he opened his mouth.

“For today, I’ll excuse myself here. Um, may I take the catalog?”

“Of course. Though I’d like you to look carefully at the other pages too, if possible.”

Pretending not to hear Marco’s lingering words, Dias bowed once and placed his hand on the doorknob.

Suddenly, something bothered him and he turned around. His gaze was directed at another door beside Marco, one slightly smaller than the door in front.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing…”

He opened the door again. Holding an ordinary catalog that could be found anywhere as carefully as if it were a treasure, Dias left.

***

After Dias had left, as if taking his place, the small door connecting to the room next door opened, and someone entered. It was a petite woman wearing a security guard’s uniform. Her dark navy tight skirt showed off the line of her firm, attractive backside.

“So that’s the rumored lover of yours, Doctor.”

“Clarissa-kun, could you please not say strange things?”

Marco frowned at the unfunny joke.

The woman, Clarissa, brushed back her shoulder-length blond hair and smiled cheerfully. She wore goggles over her eyes, glowing faintly red, and the single camera-like mono-eye moved left and right.

“You always rely on him, look forward to your meetings, and yet he never does what you want. Even so, you never come to dislike him. Hehe, if that is not love, then what should it be called?”

“You didn’t come out here to make pairings with your superior, did you? Can you tell me what impression you had of him just now?”

Marco asked Clarissa, who had been on the other side of the wall until just moments earlier. It was not as though there was a peephole or surveillance camera installed. She could see.

Those goggles were high-performance thermography goggles and the temperature around her was color-coded and projected directly into her brain as visual information. This, too, was an application of nerve-connected prosthetic technology. She had been blind since birth.

Looking at people, evaluating them, and conveying what she perceived was both a form of communication with Marco and part of collecting data on how things appeared through Clarissa’s eyes.

“A powerful physique, a calm air. His body temperature rose only slightly when he spoke about his lover. If I were to express it in one phrase…”

“Yes, in one phrase?”

“A gorilla in love, roaming the wasteland.”

Marco could not help bursting out laughing. It was a terrible way to put it, but it was not wrong. He wiped the saliva that had flown onto the black-lacquered desk with his sleeve while trying to hold back his laughter.

“Um, Doctor. Was something strange about that…?”

A slight note of anxiety mixed into Clarissa’s voice. Even if it was just ordinary daily conversation, it also held the meaning of an experiment, so having him suddenly burst out laughing naturally made her uneasy.

She had been instructed to say what she felt without decorating her words but had that been too outrageous after all?

“It was strange. No, I mean it was extremely funny. As an answer, it gets full marks.”

After that, Marco needed more than ten seconds to steady his breathing.

Clarissa did not know Dias’s face or his past. All she knew was his vague outline and body temperature, and the voice she had heard through the wall. Judging from the doctor’s reaction, his atmosphere must really have resembled a gorilla in love. Even though she had said it herself, she was starting to no longer understand it.

“I don’t mean his face is like a gorilla. His atmosphere, his atmosphere is… bufu.”

Marco added a follow-up while laughing. That only made it harder to understand.

“Even so, those eyes of yours really are excellent. You can detect changes in the other person’s body temperature during conversation, can’t you? If we continue gathering data on conversation patterns, we might be able to start with lie detection, then eventually read another person’s emotions in fine detail.”

He spoke as if he were truly having fun. Clarissa could clearly tell that much even without reading heat.

“Those eyes…”

Marco suddenly lowered his tone and spoke in a serious voice. Clarissa’s ears were sensitive too. This ability was not dependent on the nerve-connected goggles. It was something she had cultivated during the sixteen years she had been alive.

“As I just said, the abilities of those eyes are special. No other person has them. You can do things others cannot. I think that is something you may be proud of.”

She had begun wearing the goggles about two years ago. Until then, she had spent her life shut away, unable to have confidence in herself. She had survived because her parents happened to be researchers working at Marco Manufacturing and she had been able to receive treatment preferentially. Otherwise, a blind child would have either been abandoned in the wasteland or sold to a pharmaceutical company the moment she was born.

The doctor had given her light. And he had encouraged her, telling her that it was not an inferior substitute for what others had, but Clarissa’s own strength. Though she usually acted cheerful, at this moment her chest tightened, and she could say nothing. All she could do was lower her head.

“Sorry for keeping you. Did you have any plans after this?”

“I was thinking of doing some shooting practice. I still can’t even hit the target, though.”

Her demonic eye that could sense temperature could be used even in darkness. Thinking that it might be useful for night security, she had begun learning how to handle a gun. That was also why she was dressed as a security guard. Marco neither agreed nor objected to it. Think for yourself and try various things. That was all he had said.

Clarissa bowed once and was about to leave through the front door this time when Marco called to her back in a voice that sounded a little troubled.

“Hey, what do you think about a prosthetic hand transforming into a weapon?”

How should she answer that? No matter how she thought about it, it would become heavy, needlessly large and would carry risks of malfunction and accidental discharge. If one thought of a prosthetic limb as something for everyday life, there was nothing more contradictory.

Clarissa thought. What was being asked of her was to state her honest opinion as accurate data. Even if the person asking was someone she owed a debt of gratitude to, no, precisely because of that, she decided she should not hold back here.

She turned around, wearing an attractive smile and said,

“It’s dog shit.”

***

Through the market of the dust-blown city, a woman walked alone with somewhat awkward movements.

Her body was completely covered by a sand-blocking mantle and her black hair fluttered as she walked. Her elegant figure made onlookers unable to help turning back, as if some princess had come here in secret.

Her dignified beauty had not been cultivated by birth or upbringing. It was something sublimated from an affection deeper than anything, and a resolve to fight as sharp as a blade. To some people, the countless gazes praising her beauty would be pleasure and pride. But to Cardiel now, they were nothing but unpleasant.

Three years ago, when she had passed along this road in Dias’s arms after losing her hands and feet, she had been surrounded by gazes of pity and ridicule. The people of the city probably did not even remember looking at someone that way. Even if questioned, they would not be able to answer. Only the one who was hurt remembered.

It was only recently that she had become able to walk around town by herself. Even after putting on prosthetic limbs, she had not wanted to go out into the city. She took walks for rehabilitation within the factory grounds, and even small purchases were handled at the little shop inside the factory.

Complete strangers had told her many times that she had to engage with society more actively. But people close to her, especially Dias and Marco, had never once said such a thing. In Dias’s case, it was because he understood Cardiel’s feelings better than anyone. In Marco’s case, it was because he had no interest in other people’s relationships.

This time, too, she had not decided to go out alone because there was something she particularly wanted to do. After hunts, she always left the maintenance requests at the factory and the collection of bounties at the Hunter Office to Dias, while Cardiel returned to their room first to rest.

That waiting time was long.

【You bear a heavy burden from the nerve connection with the tank. That’s why resting is also part of your job. You don’t need to feel guilty about resting first】.

Dias had told her that but he must have been just as tired after hunting. At the very least, she had thought she could go buy food.

Within minutes of arriving at the market, she already felt close to giving up. She felt nauseous. Her head was dizzy. It was not because of the direct sunlight, nor because the connection with her prosthetic limbs was going poorly. The presence of other people, their gazes, disturbed her heart. She was already at her limit. At this rate, she felt like she would either vomit or collapse.

She looked left and right, then called out to a middle-aged female vendor at a nearby stall. It was just shopping but she did not feel like calling out to a male vendor.

“Yes, welcome.”

When she received a reply, she became unsure what to do. She had called out because she vaguely thought it was probably a food stall but she did not really know what it was selling.

A worn tablecloth had been spread over a crude long table, and small boxes were lined up on top of it. Handwritten thick letters written with a pen entered her field of vision. Delicious Meat Sandwiches.

Damn it, Cardiel clicked her tongue inwardly. Synthetic meat snacks sold in places like this were usually bad.

But she no longer felt like changing stalls and walking around, so she took a small credit from inside her clothing.

“Two of these, please.”

A three-clawed robot arm emerged from the gap in her mantle. Upon seeing it, the vendor’s expression changed. It was not suspicion, nor pity, nor disgust. It was relief. A flawless beauty who would make anyone stare was in such a miserable situation. The vendor’s jealousy eased and instead she felt reassured that she was now in a position to look down on her. The vendor was about to say something. Cardiel could clearly tell what she would say next.

『Oh my, how difficult. But you mustn’t give up. As long as you’re alive, good things will surely happen』 and so on, probably said with a somewhat smug tone. Being forced to go along with someone’s self-satisfaction while they convinced themselves they were being kind was not funny at all.

Unable to endure that atmosphere, Cardiel slammed the credit onto the long table, took two boxes, and left the spot.

“Ah, wait…”

A voice called from behind her but she ignored it. The money was exact, so there was no reason for anyone to complain. She felt unbearably miserable. To keep her tears from overflowing, she squeezed her eyes shut tightly. The iron legs making gashagasha sounds seemed even noisier than usual today.

It had not even been an hour since they had parted but right now, she simply wanted to see Dias.

The black-haired beauty, holding the lunch boxes and hurrying away with the sound of iron footsteps, was still the center of attention.

When Cardiel fled back to their room, Dias had not returned yet.

On the factory grounds, in one corner, stood the house made by remodeling a storage shed. She took off her mantle, brushed off the sand,and hung it on a hanger.

A black sleeveless suit. The skirt only reached above her knees. It was clothing that prioritized making it easier to remove her prosthetic limbs, but walking outside like this would be somewhat embarrassing. She sat on the bed and stared blankly at the snack boxes placed on the round table.

“What am I even doing…?”

Was this all she had obtained after going through such miserable feelings? On top of that, snacks of this level might have been sold at the factory shop too.

If she said she was a person who could do nothing, the people around her would surely deny it. Manipulating the tank as if it were her own hands and feet was something only she could accomplish and the number of mutants she had defeated proved that.

But the evaluation Cardiel desired existed somewhere else.

『…I can control a tank. But that is only my value as a weapon. What about my value as myself?』

She stared at her hand. What was there was a crude three-clawed robot arm.

When she was alone, her thoughts rolled downward, toward worse and worse places. Were these arms qualified to embrace the person she loved? Would Dias one day grow tired of her?

Tears nearly began to blur her eyes again.

She heard footsteps. Cardiel’s body shook with a jolt. Ever since three years ago, she had become sensitive and timid toward sounds around her. Then she immediately dropped her guard. She could tell from the footsteps alone. They were Dias’s.

Ton, ton, tooon, came the knock with a changed rhythm. This, too, was a signal that Dias had come home. If he opened the door suddenly, Cardiel would be frightened, so they had made this rule. Once before, Dias had forgotten it and had a gun pointed at him.

“I’m home…”

“Welcome back!”

At almost the exact moment Dias finished speaking, Cardiel clung to him with force. Cardiel’s own body was not that heavy, but the prosthetic limbs she wore had quite a weight when all four arms and legs were combined. Dias’s body swayed for an instant but falling over in this situation would be somewhat uncool. As if this were the place to show his manliness, he somehow held firm.

The robot arms went around Dias’s back and locked him in place.

Seeing Cardiel happily burying her face in Dias’s chest, he could not bring himself to shake her off, so he remained standing at the entrance. A catalog in his hand, a rifle on his shoulder and his lover firmly holding him from the front.

What am I supposed to do? he wondered. Then, glancing around the room, he saw small boxes sitting on the table. Cardiel followed Dias’s gaze and made a slightly awkward face.

“What are those?”

“Um… dinner. I tried going to the market but I didn’t really know what kind of shops were where, so I bought something at random, and the punchline is that what came out was synthetic meat sandwiches…”

Cardiel’s eyes wandered as she made excuses, looking like a child who had failed her first errand.

Released from the iron restraint, Dias pulled Cardiel close of his own accord and whispered by her ear.

“You don’t need to rush. You can get used to it slowly. Slowly.”

He seemed to have some idea of what had happened, and of how she felt right now. Cardiel felt both happy and embarrassed, a delicate mixture of emotions.

On the back where her arms had wrapped around him, Cardiel noticed the feeling of something hard pressing against her.

“Did you buy some kind of souvenir too?”

“This? It’s a product catalog I got from Doctor Marco.”

As he spoke, Dias sat in a chair, pulled the table closer, and bit into one of the meat sandwiches. For an instant, his movement stopped. Without a word, he stood up, opened the refrigerator, took out synthetic orange-style juice with zero percent fruit juice and placed two cups on the table.

It probably meant,『Wash it down with this』. Sitting on the bed opposite him, Cardiel felt somewhat awkward, wondering if it really tasted that bad.

Following his recommendation, she grabbed a meat sandwich with her three claws and took a bite. Then she thought: Dias, who neither got angry nor hit anyone over this, might be some kind of saint.

After disposing of the symbol of her regret into her stomach, draining the juice, and letting out a breath, Dias spoke with a serious expression.

“There’s something I’d like to discuss with you…”

Cardiel instinctively braced herself. In her experience, when someone formally said they had something to discuss, it was usually nothing good.

“If this is about you finding another woman, I’ll slaughter her.”

“When I’m dating the finest woman in the world, what need would I have to cheat?”

“Nfufu… I really love that part of you.”

Cardiel looked satisfied as she gazed at Dias’s face while he averted his eyes a little shyly.

By nature, he was not the skillful type when it came to the opposite sex. He felt embarrassed saying things like 『I like you』or『I love you』. It was not so much about masculinity as it was simply something he was bad at. They were not words he could say as casually as a greeting. Even so, for the sake of making his lover happy, he tried hard and said them anyway. Cardiel nodded to herself, thinking that she liked even that part of him.

“So, what did you want to discuss?”

Feeling that it did not seem to be bad news, she relaxed and urged him to continue.

Dias opened the catalog, found the page he was looking for, and turned it toward Cardiel.

“Would you like new arms?”

“…Nn?”

It was so sudden that all she could do was tilt her head.

The catalog lay on the round table. Dias held down the open page. Cardiel stared fixedly at it.

Beautiful, delicate prosthetic limbs with all five fingers. Weren’t these exactly the things she had wanted so badly she could cry, and then had given up on while holding back her tears? Why was he bringing this up now?

“I’ll explain in order, but…”

At Dias’s words, Cardiel raised her face as if released from a spell.

“After I exchanged the mutant heads for money as usual, I went to Doctor Marco’s place to make various payments. And that’s where he told me. The tank loan has been fully paid off.”

“Paid off? Wait, that was something that could end?”

She thought of the heavy tank, her other set of limbs. In terms of money, resentment, and fate, she had assumed it was something that would bind her for the rest of her life.

But when she thought about it carefully, they had spent three years hunting mutants. She had not counted accurately, but perhaps they had taken more than a hundred heads. It would not be strange if they had managed to buy off a cutting-edge tank.

Because their quality of life had not changed much, she had no real sense that the amount they earned had become incomparably different from when they had hunted on foot.

Also, that way of thinking came from her indifference toward the outside world. As long as Dias was by her side, that was enough. When she was alone, she could lock the door tightly and shut herself inside this room. That was how she avoided thinking about unnecessary things.

『…Could it be that my humanity is quite warped?』

Even now, she could not help thinking so.

“Then the doctor gave me the catalog and said all kinds of things. Wouldn’t I modify the tank? Wouldn’t I spend money on a hobby? He would be willing to arrange another loan for me.”

“That old man really wants to saddle us with debt, doesn’t he?”

Cardiel said this with a slightly exasperated tone. As she spoke, she wondered vaguely in the corner of her mind just how old he was. Marco’s thin smile came to mind. He seemed hardly changed from three years ago.

“He probably thinks that unless we’re being chased by money, we’ll slack off on mutant hunting or quit. If he simply said,『I want you to help with this experiment』or『I want you to gather data on this thing』I’d gladly do it anytime…”

Marco was a suspicious person in many ways. It was not as if there were no problems with his personality. But it was also true that their current life existed because of him, and Dias, who was especially loyal, felt deeply indebted to him.

His life was something he had offered to Cardiel, so he could not die for Marco. However, if Marco requested something, Dias had no objection to working for his sake. That was Dias’s position.

After thinking for a while, Cardiel murmured,

“Maybe he just can’t understand it.”

“Understand what?”

“That people are grateful to him.”

“Ah, that might be true.”

He was a man with little interest in human relationships. Perhaps even evaluations of himself were no exception.

“If he feels reassured when we want money, then I thought we might as well let him feel that way.”

“Even so, this is…”

It was too expensive. It did not quite exceed the tank, but all four limbs together came to a considerable amount. When they had taken out the tank loan, it was because that had been the only path left for them to live. Now that they could see a stable life ahead, she hesitated to shoulder the burden of an enormous debt all over again. All the more so if that money would be used for Cardiel alone.

“Hey, Dias, isn’t there anything you want? A hobby, or something you’d like to do if you had money?”

Today sure is a day where people keep asking about hobbies, Dias thought with a wry smile as he answered.

“The desires of a man who works as a hunter are already decided.”

“And those are?”

“A strong tank and a good woman.”

He said it so openly that Cardiel could not argue back at all.

He was respected even by fellow hunters, drove a tank across the wasteland, and could fight on equal terms or better against mutants, humanity’s natural enemies. A man like that was living shoved into a storage shed, eating awful meat sandwiches, and saying that this was enough to satisfy him.

『Am I really loved this much?』Cardiel felt as if emotion had pierced through her. Though, in this particular case, the one who had made him eat the awful meat sandwich was her.

A large hand rested on Cardiel’s shoulder as she looked down and fell silent.

“I’m not rushing you for an answer, so take your time and think about it. You can put on new prosthetic limbs. Or if there’s something else you want to save money for, that’s fine too. You could even earn a certain amount and then quit being a hunter. I’d feel bad for the doctor, though.”

Dias smiled gently, as if to reassure her.

“Whatever path you choose, you don’t need to include consideration for me among your reasons.”

“You mean I can do what I want.”

“That’s right.”

『…What do I want? That was decided from the very beginning. I want to stay with Dias forever. I want to keep living this life.』

Let’s go look at the prosthetic limbs tomorrow. She decided that, but she still did not answer. There was something she wanted to do first.

“Can you take off my prosthetic limbs?”

Saying that, she thrust both robot arms forward. Dias nodded and began removing them from her arms.

Although she had gotten used to them, nerve-connected prosthetic limbs still placed a burden on both mind and body. Because of that, she removed them when sleeping or when she wanted to rest properly. Once, she had come home exhausted and fallen asleep with them still on, then vomited spectacularly the next morning. Cleaning up had been awful that time.

After removing her arms and carefully placing them into their case, he began removing her legs next.

To make the work easier, Cardiel spread wide the legs that only reached to her knees. Since her skirt was short, doing this made her underwear completely visible.

He appreciated her making it easier, but did she really need to spread that wide? When Dias raised his face, his gaze met Cardiel’s bewitching smile.

“You want one, don’t you? A good woman.”

“Yeah, I do.”

When he finished removing her legs, Dias laid Cardiel down on the bed and covered her with his body. His rugged fingers unfastened the buttons of Cardiel’s clothing one by one, revealing her full breasts. He lowered her damp panties and caressed her as if tracing her.

Other than when she slept, Cardiel always removed her prosthetic limbs when she was held like this. When she was being treated as a woman, she did not want those things to be seen as part of herself.

Responding to Dias’s affection, sweat slowly seeped across Cardiel’s white skin, tinting it a pale cherry-blossom pink. Since she had no arms or legs, Cardiel could not do anything herself. Everything was done as Dias wished. And that, in turn, stirred excitement in her.

『…I’m becoming this person’s.』

When it was over, Cardiel lay with her black hair spread like a fan across the bed, staring up at the ceiling. As she dozed in pleasant fatigue, she felt something cold tracing over her body.

It seemed Dias was wiping her body with a wet towel.

『…At times like this, I want to pull him close with my own hands and kiss him.』

Thinking that with a smile, she fell into a true sleep.

***

The next day, when they visited the factory, the new model prosthetic limbs had already been prepared.

Dias and Cardiel were surprised by how efficient it was, but from Marco’s point of view, he had expected they would come right away anyway. There was no way Dias would hesitate when it came to Cardiel. Having them look as if they had just seen a magic trick instead made him feel somewhat embarrassed.

“May I pick one up and look at it?”

Dias asked for permission just in case and Marco answered in an extremely bothered tone.

“Go ahead. I don’t mind if she puts them on as they are. And if you like them, sign this. That’ll complete the contract.”

Marco fluttered the paper he was pinching between his fingers. A line of zeroes stood neatly in formation. Dias wanted to look away from them if possible.

He lifted one arm. The arm, made with artificial skin, was in no way inferior to the real thing. It was truly elaborate and smooth. He had been interested in it since seeing it in the catalog, but seeing the real thing made him like it even more.

Partway through, Marco made a tasteless joke.

“When they’re lined up on the desk like this, they look like a dismembered corpse.”

Dias ignored him.

“Let’s try putting them on right away. I’m sure they’ll suit you.”

“They’re really beautiful. I wonder if they’ll disappear the moment I put them on.”

Cardiel, seated on the sofa, said this anxiously. There was no way the prosthetic limbs before her eyes would disappear, but it seemed she still could not fully believe that this was a real sight.

“This isn’t a dream. They won’t break or disappear. These hands and feet were surely created so that you could wear them.”

Dias stopped Marco with his eyes when he looked as if he wanted to say something.

…Whether that is factually true or not doesn’t matter. Romance comes first. This meeting is fate. These are not prosthetic limbs that were made on a whim, only to become dead stock because the costs piled up too high.

It was not as if his feelings had truly been conveyed by his gaze alone, but in any case, pressed down by the force in Dias’s eyes, Marco reluctantly closed his half-open mouth.

As if encouraging Cardiel, who was still hesitant, Dias began replacing the prosthetic limbs.

Since Marco Manufacturing’s prosthetic limbs and connection units were standardized, the new ones could be attached without adjustment. When he removed an old prosthetic limb and attached one of the new artificial legs first, Cardiel looked surprised.

“Huh? It doesn’t hurt much.”

Until now, she had always had to endure a strong electric current when connecting her nerves, but this time it was only a light tingling. Of course, Dias knew that she had suffered pain with every connection.

When the two of them looked toward Marco together, he explained as if he had expected it.

“That means the connection is going smoothly. I suppose you could say there’s less noise. Various things like that have been improved too.”

It was truly a blessing that the parts causing pain in daily life would disappear. This is a good thing, Dias thought, smiling as he silently continued the attachment work.

When all four limbs had been attached, Cardiel timidly tried moving her fingers. One, two, three. She bent her fingers, clenched a fist, then opened it again. Three years ago, she had had her own hands and feet. She tried to compare this to that time, but she could no longer remember.

Only one thing was clear.

Right now, she had regained everything.

Cardiel spread her prosthetic hands and covered her face, her body trembling. Tears overflowed without end.

“I… until now… I couldn’t even cry like this…!”

Dias sat beside Cardiel and strongly pulled her mechanical shoulder close.

“Thank you…”

Cardiel murmured only those words, then kept her head lowered and continued crying for a while.

Eventually, Cardiel’s right hand moved as if searching for something. What did she need in this situation? Dias took a handkerchief from inside his clothes and placed it in that right hand.

It seemed he had guessed correctly. Cardiel wiped her tears, spread out the handkerchief, and blew her nose grandly with a bubii sound. This was truly just like Cardiel, and rather than getting angry, Dias watched over her with a fond smile.

From Marco’s point of view, however, the psychology of these two was difficult to understand. Why was this guy smiling after having snot sprayed all over his handkerchief?

After that, they signed the contract, and the prosthetic limbs and the debt officially became Cardiel’s.

Dias placed the old prosthetic limbs into their dedicated case and stood up. Cardiel’s eyes were still a little red, but there was no longer any turmoil in her bearing.

“Thank you very much for today. We will come to consult you again later regarding our policy for mutant hunting and other matters.”

Dias and Cardiel stood perfectly together like hina dolls and bowed deeply.

Seeing the belt of the prosthetic-limb case digging into Dias’s shoulder, Marco said with an exasperated look,

“You really do carry all sorts of burdens, don’t you…”

On his left shoulder was the prosthetic-limb case. His right arm was firmly secured by Cardiel.

“If it is something enjoyable, it is no hardship.”

Dias declared this without hesitation, then left the room.

After the two of them were gone, Marco watched the door while scratching his head. They were likable but there was so much about them he did not understand. It was a truly strange evaluation.