----Kouki Arakawa Viewpoint

　I control the terminal and select Claire Dauntless' name from the registered address and press the call button. I'm sure she's waiting on the edge of the airspace while snapping out of it, but how should I explain?

''.........Yes. It's Claire.''

　As I was thinking about the content of the argument, I heard a voice. Apparently, Claire-san has responded quite sooner than I expected. She has a tremendously unhappy expression, but her gaze is looking at me with concern.
　Okay, if this is the case, she should apologize with all her might, shaking like a fawn, and then she'll forgive me. At least I don't have to worry about getting shot with a tranquilizer gun.

'Miss Claire, I'm sorry for your concern. I promise not to do anything like this in the future.

''Totally..... You are just like the captain in that way, you can't get angry if you are apologized to like that. Well, I'm sure Miki-san will be stern with me when she returns, so I won't say anything.

　Thank goodness - unlike my mom, Claire-san is too scary because unlike her, when she gets angry, she has a blank expression on her face and is in the process of thoroughly breaking the other person's heart.

'However, Anton!　Except for you. All right?　Your job is to protect children, including Gongju-kun, from assassination. So how do you propose to take them to a dangerous place by yourself?　Take charge of your duties!　In the first place...

'Claire, our voices are being heard on the Russian side, so please leave it at that for now. 　I certainly don't think we can unload an armed Noah's aircraft on a civilian airfield.

　When I looked at the face of the lieutenant colonel while saying that to Claire-san, he nodded widely. As I thought, the lieutenant colonel, or rather the Russian side, had been worried about that area, but couldn't say it out loud?

I'll be entering Russian airspace at the current time. The estimated time of arrival is in approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes, so........what?　One moment, please.

　Claire, who appears on the terminal, is asking something into the headset she wears in her ear. Besides, the cabin's normal lighting seems to have been switched to a faint red light, but what is going on?　Mr. Anton, who had retreated out of camera range, was also staring at the screen, wrinkling his brows.

''Gongju-kun, I'm sorry, but I can't go over there.''

...Yes?

"We are currently flying at an altitude of 13,000 meters and we have been captured by Unknown. We are currently at an altitude of 13,000 meters and have been captured by Unknown. We are not responding to our transmissions, nor is there any response to the IFF. We have confirmed that Unknown has just fired AAM and is now taking evasive action, but it will probably be shot down. Therefore, I ask you and Anton to escape from Russia by yourselves. As all means are acceptable, Anton will escort Mr. Kunugi back to Noah's HQ and Hakone base with all his might. End of transmission.

　What do you mean?　Does this mean that the transport Claire is on was attacked?　Why would they do that? Because we just had a discussion and the Russians agreed to my proposal. There's no need to attack...?

Mr. Anton!　There is an attack on this room...

　It was quicker to be grabbed by Mr. Anton's thick arms and hidden behind that big back than it was for me to talk to him. It's going to be a mess to rely on, but frankly, what can you do with just that little pistol in your hand?　As I was thinking about this, Mr. Anton spoke to the Commander in a low voice, probably accompanied by the click of the safety release.

'As I'm sure you could hear, the transport that came for us was attacked. I understand that there is no point in you acting in such a manner, but we would like to eliminate the possibility of such an action.... Is the Russian government involved in the current situation?

Calm down, Assistant Lieutenant. We've just received official orders from the government to protect Arakawa and send him back to Japan. That means we had nothing to do with it. This is probably the work of the New World.

　 I mean, how far have those guys from the New World penetrated?　I don't know anything about this place except for the government, and I'd rather not know what the hell I'm doing here. I don't know if they're here to kill me or to get information out of me.
　I think we should get out of this room for now, and find someplace safe to... As I was thinking about my future plans in my head, the lights in the room suddenly went out and the room became dark.

''Mr. Anton, is there a power outage?''

'No, there's no way a building on this level doesn't switch to reserve power, the lights have been artificially dimmed. Mr. Kunugi, although the curtains are up, you must stay away from the windows you are in danger of being shot at. Lieutenant Colonel!　What's the defense capability of this hotel?

"The 30th floor security room is packed with Home Office Special Forces. There are five power suit squads deployed in the basement and the main entrance, so I don't think they'll be able to get through that easily.

　I'm sure it's possible to hold out for as long as it takes for the rescue to arrive, but I'm more concerned about my personal device, which has stopped responding at all since a while ago. I can't press any button and the screen remains black and I can't hear the faint drive sound that I would hear in sleep mode. All I can think of is that it's completely disabled.　The green light that indicates that the device on your device and the one on your hip is off as well, so it's safe to assume that it's shutting down.

"Mr. Anton, this is not good. Probably won't be able to function with the personal firearms and power suits of the Special Forces downstairs.

What's going on?

The malfunctioning of Mom's hacked terminals, as well as those belonging to Mr. Anton and the commander, and the fact that they disabled my terminal, which is marked as a countermeasure against the ECM, makes me think this is more than just jamming. It's probably an EMP attack and the personal identification devices that are required to be installed on all firearms used by the regular military may have been destroyed. Likewise, it is very likely that the power suits have been neutralized as well.

　Noah also remembers my mom's head in the sand because the equipment for anti-EMPs is being installed at Macho's suggestion, but it's stupidly expensive. That's what even a single company's private army with state-of-the-art equipment would be doing, but it wouldn't be deployed to a Russian military unit specializing in domestic security that wasn't even elite. So we're going to have to get out of here with one small, old-fashioned automatic pistol that hasn't changed in nearly 200 years.

What are we going to do?

You'll be getting out of here by yourself. You speak Russian, so you don't mind if I don't go with you?　Listen, when you get out of the hotel, you go to the apartment on this note by yourself. There's a forged passport and some cash that I asked my friend to keep in case you need it. When you get them...

Wait a minute!　I can't do it alone!　And what about Mr. Anton?

''Kunugi-kun!　We don't have time for this, so shut up and listen.... When we get it, we'll take the train to the Finnish border. Never head east, it's Finland on the other side, okay?　And you definitely use cash when buying tickets. If you use credit, the enemy will definitely catch you. When you arrive in Finland, head to the second address on your note. It's Noah's safe house and you can ask for help from there. Are we clear?　You can take this pistol with you, too, and make sure you get away with it.

　As he says this, Mr. Anton hands me a handgun. I shoved the big, heavy gun in my hand between my belts and hid it with my jacket, and Mr. Anton opened his mouth as if to admonish me, patting me on the head.

'Don't worry, Conor, you also trained in anti-urban shooting on Noah Island, right?　This time we don't have to fight, we just have to run, so there's plenty of room.

Okay. But how are we going to get out of the hotel in the first place?

　You're not going to tell me to run out of the dust chute.......we're on the 83rd floor and I'll be dead before I can escape. While I was thinking about this, the commander crawled over and spoke to me.

There is a large river running behind this hotel, the water is around 15 meters deep, so even a power suit in inactivity should be able to absorb the impact. You have to manually attach the emergency suit on this floor and jump into the river. It's an Arakawa-type suit, so the suit can be purged with explosive ignition. There are no semiconductors in the ignition, so it should be usable in an EMP environment. I will help you install it, if you'd like.

　As the Lieutenant Colonel led me out into the corridor, carefully opening the door and checking out the outside, he removed a decorated painting and lowered a lever that was hidden behind it. The lever, which was probably a deliberately outdated device to increase its reliability, activated normally and the wall lifted up, revealing the power suit in front of him.

''It's a 'Russian 5th generation aircraft, Mirasi. Normally, I would like you to install it in an operational state, but that's not going to happen this time. Next time, please install it in working condition and be amazed at its performance.

　The Commander laughs and says something that could be taken as both a joke and a sarcastic commentary on the situation, but the power suit called Mirasi, which means mirage in Russian, is a heavy duty machine that, if it is operational, is powerful enough to defeat the enemy with ease.
　When the cockpit part is forced open with the special tool on the side, I climb in and put on the belt while Yuri and Anton are holding it down. I put on the helmet that has a built-in HUD, and thumbs up the helmet as per the normal installation procedure.

''Arakawa-san, after a ten second count, we will force eject you from the hotel. Probably, but be prepared for impact as it will land on your back side!　I'm ashamed to say that I don't know how many New World collaborators we have in our country. Please consider all official agencies as potential enemies and, as I'm sure the Assistant Lieutenant has explained to you, please try to escape somehow.... Please be safe.

Yes, sir!　Therefore, Commander, Yuri and Mr. Anton, please surrender at your own risk.

...for the count!　Ten, nine, eight, seven.

Do you hear me?　You hear me, sir?

Three, two, one, eject!

　Without a response to my words, I heard an explosion and after experiencing a momentary feeling of levitation, I found myself falling from my back towards the ground at a furious speed. To be honest, I'm so scared I'm about to cry, but I'm more worried about Anton-san, Claire-san and the others and can't do it.