What was wrong with 9S? His face was utterly shaken.
He kept muttering, "Impossible," over and over.
It was like he had glimpsed a secret he was never meant to see. Then he just dropped onto the ground.
That chaotic, near-malfunctioning behavior made 2B narrow her eyes slightly.
"Wait. I'm fine. I haven't been hacked or infected."
9S hurried to explain, because 2B—no, everyone—was already looking at him with open hostility. They were afraid he'd been compromised by some virus, and that meant they might decide to execute him.
"What did you find?" 2B asked coldly.
"T-This is something we shouldn't be finding, 2B. This… this looks like a chunk of flesh from a human body. And this blood—there's no mistake. It's human blood."
9S said it so forcefully, his mind half elsewhere, as he kept examining the congealed red liquid splashed across the ground.
"What are you saying?"
"I mean… that guy is probably human. A real human!"
When 9S blurted it out again, 2B seemed not to process it at first. Her head tilted faintly, almost blank.
Or perhaps she understood—and that was exactly why her thoughts snapped into disorder.
"H-Human…?"
2B recovered enough to repeat the word, head tilting again, voicing a term that was both familiar and alien to the YoRHa forces.
It was familiar because YoRHa—no, the very existence of all androids—revolved around humanity.
They served humanity. They fought for humanity. They reclaimed Earth for humanity, to purge machine lifeforms from mankind's home.
Humans were the masters of all androids.
So of course it was familiar.
And yet it was alien, because since 2B had descended into this world and become a member of YoRHa, she had never once seen a human.
As far as she knew, none of the YoRHa personnel in the Bunker had ever seen one either.
No. There was one exception.
The Commander had.
"H-Humans?"
"9S, what nonsense are you talking about?"
"How could humans possibly come down to the surface to fight?"
The other YoRHa members simply did not believe him. The looks they aimed at 9S turned dangerous again.
They suspected 9S might have been infected with some new type of virus, fed false intelligence deliberately manufactured by machine lifeforms, to achieve some malicious end.
"Hey. Your eyes are getting dangerous."
9S's body tensed despite himself.
He could understand, at least in part, how shocking this discovery was.
Humanity was scarce. They lived on the Moon. They would almost certainly never risk their lives coming to Earth to fight.
And for hundreds—thousands—of years, there had been no reports of it. The surface war was fought by androids against machine lifeforms. Always.
So what, exactly, was happening now?
Was this truly a human who had come to fight on the surface?
And if so… why hide it from YoRHa?
9S couldn't make sense of it. Androids were absolutely loyal to humanity. Androids loved humanity.
If humans were concealing the truth, that could only mean they did not fully trust androids.
They had developed equipment and weapons like this without androids knowing, and that level of secrecy implied extremely strict containment.
So why wouldn't humans trust androids?
There was only one possibility.
That androids were not obeying humans one hundred percent.
But to 9S, that was unthinkable.
And yet nothing in the world was truly one hundred percent. If a conflict existed between android leadership and humanity—if the two sides had come into contradiction—
In fact, there were plenty of things that didn't add up.
First: contact with humans.
As far as 9S knew, other than the Commander, no one in the Bunker had ever seen a human.
It looked like excessive protection, keeping humans from interacting with other androids.
But if you flipped the logic around…
What if humans were being kept by androids instead?
What if they were being penned in?
The moment that thought surfaced, 9S felt his skin crawl.
Maybe… he should infiltrate the Bunker's main server, and see the Council of Humanity's real situation for himself.
But there was no way he would be stupid enough to say this out loud.
If he did, the outcome was obvious.
He would be shot on the spot.
They would insist he was infected. They would claim this "new virus" existed specifically to drive a wedge between androids and humanity.
And as that line of reasoning reached its end, a chill ran up 9S's spine.
What if there was another possibility?
What if he really had been infected with a new machine-created virus?
A virus designed precisely to make androids doubt humanity, to make both sides turn on each other and start killing each other.
"All units. Continue the mission."
2B's flat order ended the chatter. The members who had been eyeing 9S suspiciously shut their mouths.
If their squad leader wasn't saying more, then they would obey, and that came first.
The group advanced into the forest, staying on full alert.
Confirming the target's trail wasn't difficult.
The intruder seemed to have barreled through the woods in a straight-line rampage, leaving behind obvious destruction.
And the armour looked heavy—heavy enough to carve clear impressions into the ground.
"Hm. With armour that heavy, their running speed should be around fifty kilometers per hour."
9S continued his analysis, clicking his tongue.
If it was raw muscle moving inside that suit, forcing such armour to run at that speed… he couldn't even imagine the strength involved. One punch could crush him, effortlessly.
And if the armour had its own power assistance, that was still terrifying.
So 9S was increasingly convinced the archaic-looking armour was power armour.
"Hmm? There are other traces too. Were they chasing something?"
Based on the scans and track patterns, 9S pushed the inference further.
What was the target pursuing?
Machine lifeforms? Or the surface Resistance?
"This footprint…"
"Oh? Looks like the surface Resistance."
9S stepped forward, examined the prints 2B had noticed, and delivered the conclusion.
"Did the chase stop here? Did they hit a trap?"
The footprints stopped being frantic. They became steady, controlled steps—heading northwest.
"Huh?"
Then came a new discovery.
They spotted signs that fruit from a tree had been picked and eaten.
"Tooth marks?"
Not the bite marks of a wild animal.
Human bite marks.
That only reinforced it: the intruder was human.
After all, androids didn't need to eat things like this to replenish energy.
After following the trail for another two minutes, 9S immediately signaled everyone to slow down.
The target was close.
He raised a hand to the black band over his eyes.
It wasn't just cloth. It was a visor disguised as a blindfold, packed with functions.
As a Scanner model, he could see farther than the rest.
He locked the direction. His view pierced through layers of brush.
There.
The target was using an old-looking communicator, talking to someone.
The radio signal was simple. Easy to crack and infiltrate.
Following the signal's transmission direction, 9S spotted another target.
Huh?
That was… YoRHa personnel?
Suddenly, 9S's expression changed as he snapped his head toward the direction they had come from.
Bad.
An enemy was coming.
(End of Chapter)
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