Muon and Dainsleif
A series of short stories involving Outer Shadow Dainsleif and SFA-Muon, in between events of Beyond the Gods II as I have run into writer's block for the direction of the main story lol. This would be after the events of the Trial by Combat and Aaron's return (spoilers).
01
Several weeks have passed since Inner Shadow Slipstream threw me into SFA-Muon.
In these weeks alone, I learned a myriad of skills from squad coordination, disguise, and standard combat protocol and stances.
I learned of the things I lacked.
And the things that set me apart from others.
But among these things, was one thing that I would never forget.
"So how big are Sigurd's things?" Seven Five asked.
I spat out my oatmeal before my breakfast could even make it to the back of my throat.
"WHAT?!" I turned to the young Auxiliary Shadow of SFA-Muon.
Tactical War Doll 75-M of SFA-Muon was considered the strike force's greatest long-range marksman.
Based on her file, she was the daughter of a wealthy businessman named Alistair Winchester, and went by the name Charlotte Winchester. This connection alone would classify her as a noblewoman, or a young girl of noble status. According to the laws of her world, Charlotte would have learned the manners of a noble and carry herself with elegance.
Not that any of this mattered. Because from the first day till current, my impression of 75-M was anything but that.
In practice, the "noblewoman" in front of me, was probably the most chaotic little fifteen-year-old I had ever met. But then again, the only other teenaged girl I ever lived with and knew was June, who conducted herself far more properly.
If anything, if someone were to put June and Charlotte in one room, anyone with a brain would think that June was the daughter of House Winchester, and Charlotte the crazy fanatic of the yaoi Killing Stalking (don't ask me what yaoi means, because if you do not know, do NOT Google it. I had it explained by 75-M against my will).
"Wh- What do you mean by things? Haha, I'm gonna go take a dump now..." I muttered.
"Oh poppycock. Everybody knows you have your bowel movements at 0600 every morning, give or take ten minutes. It's 0700."
There is no way anybody except you would know that!
75 poked me on my arm.
"Spill the tea, Aaron-dearest! How big are her jugs? How big did Lord Gasket design them?"
"Why the hell do you need to know?!"
The War Doll leaned back and crossed her arms, pouting.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm an A-cup. And thanks to certain circumstances, I can't ever grow in this body ever again. My chest will forever remain the same."
"I didn't need to know that, thanks."
"Besides..." 75-M continued, completely ignoring my comment.
"...I heard on the first day of her assignment to your squad, you popped one! Is that true?"
"OKAY I am not having this conversation with you first thing in the morning," I exclaimed, getting up and tossing the cereal into the garbage.
Guess it turned out that War Dolls were also capable of assassinating appetites too. Good to know!
"AWWWW! Don't leave! Come back! Please please please please PLEASE!!!!" 75-M grabbed my waist and began wailing like a hysterical puppy.
"Let go of me, you moron! My god! Shouldn't a soldier be more prim and proper? You're a noble yet you're the most vulgar little girl I've ever met in my entire life!"
75 suddenly let go, as I turned around. Surprise crept into my face.
The War Doll's body language had changed.
Her facial expression had momentarily flashed with... hurt?
"Ah- Pigtails, I didn't mean-"
"Huh? What? What are you talking about? Hahaha!" 75-M quickly reverted back to her usual cutesy demeanour, forcing a laugh and twirling her pigtails.
"Was it my comment on your noble status? I didn't mean to-"
"No! No no no. It's fine. Totally fine."
"Are you sure? You know we're both interrogator types. We can't really lie to each other."
Charlotte looked away.
"Can we just drop it?" She whispered.
Concern laced my face. This was completely out of character for her, but if bringing this up made her uncomfortable, then it was best to drop it. Despite her teasing, Pigtails knew that I didn't really mind. As she herself was an interrogator as well, she could tell that her teasing only really just irritated me but never bothered me. If there was anything that crossed the line, she would know. Which was why of all the things she could tease me about, she never once brought up June.
And I had to take up my part of the bargain.
"Alright," I said gently, kneeling before the War Doll.
"But if there's anything bothering you, you can let me know. We're BFF's, remember?"
75-M slowly looked at me, surprise on her face, which transitioned into a big smile.
"BFF's... yeah... YEAH! Then once we're BFF's we can move onto the next stage and get marr-"
"Yeah, no."
"BLEH!"
The door behind us creaked open, revealing a red-haired girl with a relatively muscular tomboyish frame.
"The hell are you idiots doing speaking so loud in the morning? This isn't Basic, you're givin' me damn flashbacks again!" 76-M growled.
"Hey, it's Spitfire Spice," I replied.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"
"BAHAHAHA!" Pigtails laughed, kicking her feet in the air and giggling like an idiot.
"STOP LAUGHING!" 76-M snarled, trying to reach out to her fellow squad member, but 75-M darted away with superhuman speed. I had to remember that these girls were all technically super soldiers. Whenever I was with Pigtails, I tended to forget that since she was always so outgoing.
But when I was with 76-M, the realization returned just as quickly as it left.
"Her face is turning the same colour as her hair! Lighten up, Ginger Giggles,"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
SMASH.
75-M and I stopped teasing 76-M as the War Doll smashed the edge of the counter with her fist, shattering it.
"Imma rip your balls off!"
"Wait! Don't do that!" I yelped, scurrying away and bumping into another War Doll who squeaked in surprise, tackling me and pinning me to the ground with a complex judo throw.
76-M and 75-M peered at us curiously with raised eyebrows.
"GAH! My liver! My spleen! My liver and spleen! You're gonna kill me!" I gasped as 78-M quickly let go, her face bright red.
"S- Sorry..."
I narrowed my eyes at the War Doll.
Was it just me... or that body language... was that lov-
"Another morning, another headache. I am once again reminded that I have not just 75-M, but the Black Legion's greatest PITA to babysit now," 74-M grumbled from the corner of my vision.
"Good morning Tali," I said.
"Do not ever call me that again."
"Come on, lighten up! We're not on the battlefield. Let's just loosen up a bit."
"Who taught you this?"
I pointed at 78, who yelped in surprise. Her black hair covered her face like Samara from The Ring.
"I meant that it was fine to be relaxed when we were safe is all, safe with... Aaron..."
"Safe with Aaron?" 74-M's eyebrows scrunched together.
"Safe with Dainsleif! Dainsleif! I mean, safe from the battlefield! I'm... I'm going to take a shower now."
78-M tripped over herself and scurried to the bathroom.
I wonder what 75-M was thinking at a time like this-
"That little bitch...!" Pigtails muttered under her breath. I turned to her and her face quickly flashed back to a smile.
"Huh? What? Oh would you look at that, it's time to get dressed!"
76, 74, and I watched as 75-M quickly ran to her room and slammed the door so hard the wall around it cracked.
"So is nobody gonna comment on the fact that I have a legit minor crushing on me?" I asked.
"Ugh..." Thalia buried her face in her hand.
76 continued peering at the bathroom door.
"Love is dangerous on the battlefield."
"Yeah, but it isn't something that you can stop, you know?" I replied.
"I know. Believe me, I know. But it still doesn't make it any better. Added with the fact that you're old as fuck and Seven Eight is fifteen, it'll never work out."
"Hey! I'm not that old! I'm nineteen!"
"Can we not talk about dating minors for just a minute?" 74-M said.
"Sorry."
76-M and I watched as 74-M walked forward and put a stack of papers on the desk.
"We have another deployment."
"Another one? How many campaigns have you guys gone on at this point?" I exclaimed.
"75-M has been on 282, 77-M and 78-M have been on 291, 76-M has been on 395, and I've been on 467."
"You're joking."
"Nope. This is just the nature of interdimensional travel and having to kill the enemy as fast as possible. Sometimes War Dolls are placed on other strike teams, sometimes strike teams are mixed and mingled to confuse the enemy."
"I'm basically looking at a 100-year-old war vet in the body of a fifteen-year-old girl..."
Thalia suddenly perked up, her back straightening.
"Well, I am quite mature for my age...!"
76-M rolled her eyes.
"Says the other girl with a crush."
74-M and 76-M locked glares, tension filling the air.
"Um... can we start the briefing and fill in the others later?" I asked.
"The others kind of have an idea of what the mission is going to be. The only person who doesn't know is you, actually," 74-M said, breaking the glare.
"What? Did you girls really leave me out again?"
"No, you testosterone-filled idiot. You were there when the mission was announced!" 76-M replied.
"Wait, really?"
BONK.
Thalia buried her head into the table.
"Yes. Dainsleif. You were there. But instead of listening and scribing like I had ordered you to, you decided to fill my iPad with loli jokes. Do you seriously not remember?"
"Did you like them?"
"No, I did not like them! Why would I like them?!"
74-M sighed.
"Okay. Well. The gist of the mission is to take down a group of specialist soldiers currently tasked with guarding the Demon King Jinn."
"Specialist soldiers? In what way?"
"They are essentially the upper echelon. The best of the best. Hyper-lethal combatants and the most terrifying soldiers. They fight like us, tactically. Intelligence suggests they were contracted off of an interdimensional contact. Since another strike team is involved with taking down the nation itself, we need to divide the resources. SFA-Muon has been tasked with crippling their contracted forces. The other SFA company will take down the Demon King army."
74 slid a piece of paper in front of me.
"You will take up a sniper role for this deployment."
I raised my eyebrows.
"Me? Isn't Pigtails the sniper?"
"Ordinarily... but this deployment is a little different. Because we have identified one of the soldiers on the enemy lines, look at this photo."
I assessed the image.
Green hair... bright blue eyes.
His posture... was akin to that of a nobleman.
Of House Winchester.
"No way... is this... is this Alistair? I thought Evangelion had killed all your parents!"
"No. It wouldn't have made sense unless something transcended the Great Akuma's Hinokami. But this is not 75-M's father," 76-M took the picture and put it back into the binder, a grim look on her face.
"This is Richard Winchester. The last surviving son of the Winchester bloodline."
My eyes widened.
I should have seen it coming. After all, from what Thalia had told me, Evangelion had killed all of their parents. But she never mentioned siblings.
For all we knew, there was no knowledge of what had happened to the brothers and sisters of the girls in the SFA Regiment.
To know that Pigtails' brother was the enemy...
"So you're saying that 75-M might be influenced by the fact that her enemy is family?" I asked.
"Seven Five was always unusual in the SFA Regiment. Because she is one of the best interrogators in the company," 74 explained, putting the binder away.
"She is more sensitive than the other members of Muon, and even the company. This in itself is required for an interrogator to figure out her targets. But because she is so sensitive, stuff like this tends to overload her. The enemy knows about Muon through Charlotte Winchester, even if 75-M destroyed that part of herself. And Lord Hellion knows this. This is your opportunity to learn about long-range sharpshooter training. Learn by filling in where 75 lacks."
"..."
I didn't like the idea of 75-M going through something like this. The events that had transpired earlier this morning came back to my mind.
"Dainsleif," 74 said.
"?"
"75-M will be fine. You're underestimating us again."
"I know, but how can I not?"
"Being in a squad, leading your comrades also means you need to trust them and accept that they will always be in danger. This is the nature of having your subordinates. And by extension, the nature of your job as an Outer Shadow."
She had a point.
