Kai snickered at the captain’s words.
“Come on, Doctor Obel may look like that, but when it comes to getting work done, he’s impressively sharp about it. Luka — oh, obviously not you, I mean the boy. This Luka provides me with all the data I need for his prosthetic body, right on schedule.”
The captain nodded at Kai’s defense of him.
“He’s blunt, but he does good work.”
Kai lifted his goggles and grinned.
“And yet someone that smart still doesn’t understand my love for machines, does he?”
The black chrome component Kai was examining was an extremely small piece — one that made it hard to imagine what the full body would look like. Luka tried to picture how all those tiny pieces assembled together would connect to him.
Hmm. Can’t imagine it.
More than dwelling in that realm of imagination, it was faster to think about how he’d ended up laughing and chatting with these people in the first place.
I think it’s because the captain kept coming into the treatment room, and then one by one, everyone else started coming in too….
Then suddenly, a memory surfaced — a moment of sitting together with people, talking like this. It was his academy days.
Luka had not been a diligent student. Having used a sword to earn money long before he ever enrolled, school life felt dull and tedious. He was frequently scolded by professors for dozing off during boring lectures. The saving grace was his circle of friends, who would often tempt him into skipping class to go out and have fun — thanks to them, he’d managed to stack up plenty of fond memories.
But there was one class he couldn’t skip out on with those friends — his major. Traditional martial arts was one of the most historically rooted and orthodox subjects at the academy, rivaled only by history. As such, the lectures were held not in the academy building, but in one wing of the royal palace. The instructor in charge was the most distinguished figure in the royal court.
“…I majored in traditional martial arts at the academy on my home planet. My advanced specialty was the sword.”
Both the captain and Kai turned to look at Luka at the same time. The sudden focus made him feel awkward, and strangely self-conscious — he fidgeted with the blanket. For some reason, he’d simply wanted to talk about this.
“People would probably laugh and call it outdated, in this day and age… but I actually liked my major quite a bit.”
How exhilarating it had been, to formally learn at school what he’d been swinging around freely outside. The etiquette and conduct that came with martial arts was tedious, but the art itself was genuinely captivating enough to make all of it worth enduring.
“In an era where people fight with optical weapons and ship cannons, traditional martial arts has long been pushed aside — reduced to ceremonial dances and rituals. Even so, I liked the practice of training mind and body. Finding your center, steadying your breath….”
Luka trailed off for a moment as it hit him — he had no arms or legs. But then he looked at the components Kai was carefully assembling and added:
“Once Kai finishes the prosthetics, I want to try again. Even if the mechanical limbs mean the breathing won’t flow as smoothly as before.”
At hearing Luka — always pessimistic, always cynical — speak about the future for the very first time, something deep stirred in the captain’s eyes. He reached over and ruffled Luka’s hair roughly, then pulled him fully into his arms.
“Look at this — our Luka, having such a wonderful thought. Traditional martial arts, no less. That’s genuinely impressive.”
Luka, held against the captain’s chest, shoved him away with his left hand and snapped irritably.
“What are you doing? Are you treating me like a child?”
“Well, you are a child.”
“I’m an adult! I’ve already gone through my coming-of-age ceremony, so I’m an adult…!”
Even as Luka yelped and vented his frustration, the captain didn’t apologize for the misunderstanding — he just blinked, eyes wide and round.
“You’re an adult?”
“Do I look like a kid to you right now?”
The captain’s expression turned awkward as he looked Luka over.
“Mmm, you still feel like your bones haven’t finished growing….”
“…People keep growing even after they become adults. Do I really have to teach you something that basic?”
“That’s true, but, mmm….”
“You’re genuinely rude, you know that? Just because I’m small, you think I’m actually a child… I am an adult. Do you want me to tell you what kind of coming-of-age ceremony I had before you’ll believe me?”
Luka grumbled at the captain, who still wore that awkward expression as a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
“…The day Aegis destroyed my home planet was the biggest holiday of our planet. On that day, I performed a sword dance in my capacity as a special temple knight candidate. In front of royalty and nobles…. There’s no way a child could do something like that. It’s the kind of thing only entrusted to adults like me.”
At those words, Kai — who had been handling the components — and the captain — who had been sorting through tea leaves — both went still. Seeing Luka’s expression turn somber in an instant, Kai glanced sidelong at the captain. His eyes clearly said: try saying something comforting.
The captain thought quietly for a moment, then pulled Luka into his arms again.
“The sword dance — show it to me.”
Luka pushed against the captain’s broad chest with his left hand.
“You want to see a child’s little sword dance?”
“I’m sorry. I won’t treat you like a child anymore. So that sword dance you performed in front of others — show it to me too.”
“…No.”
“What kind of holiday was that day? Tell me if there’s anything you need — food, clothing, whatever. A sword would probably be good too, right?”
“I’m not doing it. Don’t prepare anything.”
But the captain wrapped his arms around Luka — who kept pushing him away — and held him firmly in his embrace.
“A Luka who does traditional martial arts — just imagining it is wonderful. While we’re at it, let’s gather all the crew and have you demonstrate.”
“Ugh, I said I’m not doing it…!”
“But it really does sound great. Once you have the prosthetics on, it won’t be easy to train your body since they won’t be your original limbs. The range of muscle movement will inevitably narrow. Don’t you think your major could compensate for that disadvantage to some extent?”
“…Like I said, it was ceremonial. Ritual-based….”
“So did our Luka study martial arts because he wanted to become something like a swordsman?”
Our Luka. His face flushed red at the phrasing as he shot back:
“No… I was going to become a temple knight…. A temple knight who wields a sword is called a special temple knight, but….”
“In this vast universe, a planet that believes in gods rather than machines — that sounds so wonderfully romantic.”
“I don’t even believe in gods….”
“How does someone who doesn’t believe in gods become a temple knight?”
“That’s because what a special temple knight does is — ugh, why am I even talking about this…!”
How had it come to this. He’d only been thinking about his academy days, and somehow he’d ended up talking about his major, his coming-of-age ceremony, and even the special temple knight business. Thinking about how absurd the existence of gods must sound to people who travelled aboard a cutting-edge ship like this, his face burned.
If there were gods, the planet wouldn’t have been destroyed — the kind of cheerful, faithless cursing that a true nonbeliever might pour out was the sort of thing that could easily come flying his way. So Luka pressed his lips tightly shut.
I don’t want to go around spilling every little thing I think inside….
Kai watched Luka’s embarrassed face and snickered, then picked the wrench back up.
“Don’t worry, Luka! I’ll calculate every single movement of your traditional martial arts and adjust the range of motion down to 0.1-degree increments! This Kai personally guarantees it, until the day you become the strongest swordsman on our ship!”
“Stop teasing me….”
In place of a struggling Luka, the captain thought it over carefully and spoke earnestly:
“Having you demonstrate martial arts would also be a good way to check how well the prosthetics have adapted to your body. Using martial arts with mechanical limbs would be quite destructive — so it could be practical, too.”
At the captain’s analysis, Kai’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, that’s true! Luka, you said that martial art of yours was ritual-based, right? That means the movements are graceful and fluid. So what do you think would happen if the smooth trajectory of that was combined with the output of my masterpiece?”
Kai held up the component that would go into Luka’s knee joint and launched into a passionate explanation.
“The moment you lift your leg and swing it, the servo motor will generate rotational force ten times faster than your original muscles! On top of that, the tensile strength of the chrome alloy in the prosthetics is on par with a warship’s armor plating! What used to be a hand blade that cut through empty air — it now becomes something no different from an ultra-high-frequency vibrating blade that can slice through a steel robot’s neck in a single stroke!”
Kai, completely carried away with excitement at the talk of machinery, had forgotten that Luka didn’t always follow such specialized explanations — and pressed on energetically:
“With just a bit of output adjustment, a single kick could reduce a marble pillar to dust! Think about it — the explosive mechanical power loaded onto the fluid rotational axis of traditional martial arts! Oh man! A measly Aegis infantry unit would go flying with just one kick from you!”
Luka listened to Kai’s explanation and looked down at where his legs should have been. He’d only thought about walking and running with new limbs. The destructive force Kai was describing was so unreal that it left him stunned.
I could really become that strong?
