The dropship roared beneath him …
… but all Kaito could hear was the echo of his own voice shouting orders too late.
He sat stiff-backed, thigh wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage, his rifle across his knees. Three ponchos lay folded at the rear, too neatly, like an insult. Three rifles strapped together like fence posts. Three ghosts sitting in silence across from him.
[REDACTED] crooked grin still hovered at the edge of his vision. [REDACTED] endless chatter about home-cooked meals, he could almost hear it under the engine hum. [REDACTED] sharp, steady voice on the comms, cut off mid-word. Fragments. All fragments.
He’d told himself he’d done everything right. Checked the corners. Held the line. Ordered the fallback when the charges went off. But then [REDACTED] hand had reached out, expecting to be hauled to his feet, routine, not panic, and Kaito hadn’t been fast enough. That hand still lingered in his mind, open, waiting.
“Sergeant?” One of the surviving marines leaned toward him, voice barely audible over the engines. “You good?”
Kaito blinked. His mouth worked before his brain could stop it.
“Good? Yeah. Peachy. Lost three men and half a leg, but I still got my winning smile. Can’t ask for more.”
The marine tried to laugh. It died quickly.
The silence rushed back in.
Kaito pressed his fingers against his eyepatch, as if he could smother the reel playing behind it. If he’d called the retreat ten seconds earlier… if he hadn’t checked the corner twice… if he’d dragged [REDACTED] instead of covering [REDACTED]-
His chest ached worse than his thigh.
The dropship bucked, and for a moment he imagined the three of them sitting there, alive, helmets in their laps, grinning at his bad jokes. But when he looked again, it was just empty seats.
As the bird settled into the hangar, he stood on shaky legs, hiding the limp with sheer stubbornness. His squad needed him upright. They needed the mask.
Still, before the ramp dropped, he let his eyes drift once more to the folded ponchos. His lips moved, silent against the engine whine.