Chapter 66: United Airport

“I am your older sister, you know.”

“I know!!”

A strong sense of immorality washed over Yukina like a summer downpour.

She denied it forcefully, covering her face with her hands, but in the next second, she heard Ephnel’s stifled laughter.

She parted her fingers and peeked through them at her “brother,” who was suddenly laughing uncontrollably.

“If you feel uncomfortable, you must tell me immediately.”

Ephnel said with a smile, stepping out of the car.

“I know…”

Ephnel smiled at Yukina again before closing the back door with the suitcase in hand.

Yukina huddled in the back seat, patting her cheeks, and finally managed to calm down a little.

Click…

The trunk opened and closed, a figure came to the front, the car swayed, and Ephnel was back in the driver’s seat.

“Yukina, fasten your seatbelt.”

The car started.

…

The streets outside the window slowly receded as the car headed towards the airport.

Yukina quietly watched the retreating streetscape.

The closer they got to the edge of the city, the lower the buildings on both sides of the street became, while the road itself grew wider.

“Onee-chan, back then, were you always like this?” she asked.

“Like what?”

“You know… binding your chest and all that.”

Yukina’s heart had not yet calmed down, and the enchanting, beautiful scene kept replaying in her mind.

She was a little curious about that suitcase.

Besides Ephnel’s dresses, there were also underwear inside the suitcase.

She was sitting where her sister had just changed clothes naked.

The air seemed to still be filled with Ephnel’s body fragrance.

Placing her palm gently on the seat cushion, she could still feel the faint warmth left by Ephnel.

“That… pretty much.”

“But I take it off when I sleep and go on missions.”

“To be honest, it hurts a little to be bound so tightly all the time…”

Binding her chest made it difficult to breathe and hindered her body’s movement, so Ephnel would always take it off when she slept and went on missions.

Moreover, binding her chest for too long could lead to hidden dangers.

Dr. Nishizaki Yuki had also advised Ephnel not to continue, saying it could cause some diseases, but Ephnel had never paid it any mind.

Since she had chosen to become an Agent, chronic problems were no longer within her consideration.

“But among us Agents, there are others who bind their chests.”

“Shion is one of them.”

“Fuurin… Shion…?”

Yukina raised her eyelashes.

Through the rearview mirror, she saw a pair of sorrowful eyes.

She then remembered that her sister had always called the sleeping girl in the hospital bed “Shion” instead of “Fuurin Shion.”

A strange feeling welled up in her heart.

“Yes, her Order weapon is a bow and arrow, so it’s more convenient for her to fight that way,” Ephnel continued, seeming not to mind telling Yukina these things about the Agents.

“Besides her, there are others who choose to do this, but the actual combat performance tests show no real difference.”

“In the beginning, many of the senpais thought this would make physical activity more convenient, but it was later proven that with our Agents’ physical constitution, this effect is negligible.”

“Since then, very few have chosen to do so.”

For some professional athletes or soldiers, some would occasionally choose to bind their chests for adjustment, but an Agent’s physical strength was far beyond that of an ordinary person, so this effect was considered negligible.

An Agent’s combat power was directly determined by how much Power of Order she could mobilize and how long she could maintain a deep sync.

The focus of an Agent’s training had always been on the mobilization rate and reaction speed of the Power of Order, as well as combat techniques.

Yukina lowered her eyelashes.

She read another meaning in Ephnel’s words.

These two pieces of excess fat did not affect combat efficiency, which meant that Ephnel did it purely to conceal her identity.

“We can see the airport now,” Ephnel suddenly said.

She sighed softly, one hand on the steering wheel.

“We made it just in time.”

Yukina looked up and out the window.

In the crimson sky at the end of her line of sight was a slowly ascending airplane.

Contrails that had not yet dispersed lingered in the sky above, and the roar of an airplane could be heard from afar.

Yukina shifted her body, moved her gaze, and looked straight ahead along the straight road through the front windshield, and saw their destination.

The first thing that caught her eye was a protective fence that spanned her entire field of vision.

Behind it was a thick protective wall that stretched for several miles.

The road led to a military checkpoint in the middle.

Yukina’s eyesight was excellent.

She saw vehicles equipped with unknown machinery driving slowly across her field of vision.

The heavy sense of machinery and metal assaulted Yukina’s pupils.

In the center, there was a towering black metal tower—a crucial piece of equipment for combating the Erosion—a “Boundary Monument.”

This was one of the most important facilities in every city, under the direct jurisdiction of the Human Federation—the city airport, usually also called the United Airport.

At the same time, this was one of the military facilities with the highest level of armed alert in the city.

It was garrisoned by a large number of active combat troops, managed a considerable amount of armed equipment, and was equipped with a “Boundary Monument,” which was also the only Boundary Monument in Seikyo City with its own independent power supply and jurisdiction.

In other words, even if the entire city fell, this place could serve as the last line of defense and fight alone.

…

“So this is the United Airport…”

Yukina turned to the side, her eyes wide as she looked around.

This was her first time at the United Airport.

Unlike what she had imagined, the steel in the distance and the silent soldiers everywhere gave her a heavy, oppressive feeling that made it hard to breathe.

This was completely different from the feeling of living in the city.

Ephnel smiled but did not speak.

Actually, Yukina had been to the airport when she was very young.

At that time, Ephnel had taken Yukina from the man in black clothes.

Her parents had solemn expressions on their faces.

They told Ephnel that this little girl was named “Shiomi Yukina,” and from now on, she would be her younger sister.

Even Ephnel didn’t remember much about what happened back then, and she never deliberately brought it up in front of Yukina, because it involved Yukina’s deceased parents.

“We’re here.”

“Let’s get out.”

Ephnel parked the car in the parking lot.

Ephnel and Yukina were on the east side of this huge fortress base, which was also the entrance for “customers” like them.

The United Airport was generally divided into several large sections, most of which were military garrison areas, core management areas, or non-public areas of the airport that were inaccessible to unauthorized personnel.

It had to be said that this was very different from the old era that Ephnel had read about in books.

Compared to the prosperity of human society in the old era, many things had changed now.

The so-called United Airport should be classified more as a military base.

Here, the number of flights taking off and landing each day was very limited.

Due to the impact of the Erosion disasters, various signals would be affected and interfered with under the “White Hole Erosion.”

After taking off, the aircraft would quickly lose contact with the airport and face the threat of the Erosion directly.

In other words, every flight mission was accompanied by a certain degree of risk, which was a huge test for both the crew and the pilots.

Of course, air travel was much safer than the usual combat activities in the regions outside the Boundary Monuments, because the aircraft were equipped with an airborne “Concealer” made based on “Boundary Monument” technology.

This device was sufficient to make Erosion Organisms ignore the existence of the aircraft.

But not all aircraft models could be equipped with this device.

Because the shield and power supply themselves took up a considerable amount of space, it required an aircraft with enough room to be suitable.

These aircraft were mostly former transport aircraft inherited from the old era.

And, because the “Concealer” took up too much space, the number of passengers and cargo that an aircraft could carry on a single trip became very limited.

In addition, the manufacturing and maintenance costs of the shield were not a small sum.

More importantly, the manufacturing of this device required the support of very rare ruin metals and could not be mass-produced.

For this reason, the threshold for taking a flight was raised to a level that ordinary people could only sigh at.

It was a service that required multiple procedures and expensive financial support to enjoy.

Strictly speaking, this era no longer supported purely civilian air travel services.

On top of that, those who could get a seat on a plane were definitely not ordinary people.

Ephnel certainly had the ability to get one, but not as “Yanase Naoto.”

And the reason her parents could get seats was because of their status.

In Ephnel’s memory, her parents were exceptionally precious scientific researchers in this era.

Ever since she could remember, the places they frequented were not simple.

As for the specific content of the projects they were in charge of or their main research direction, they had not told Ephnel due to confidentiality agreements.

Ephnel knew their difficulties and had consciously not asked.

The Human Federation was also behind their reasons for leaving here to go abroad, but Ephnel did not know what kind of status her parents held.

The car was parked in the parking lot.

Ephnel went to the inspection gate, then went through several more procedures and checks before finally getting a temporary pass.

Ephnel was quite familiar with this.

She held Yukina’s hand and walked forward, while calling her parents.

“Mom, Yukina and I are at the airport.”

“How are you so fast?”

There was a hint of surprise on the other end of the line, followed by a light laugh.

“Alright, alright, we just finished our business here.”

“We can meet soon…”

After asking for each other’s locations, Ephnel hung up the phone and led Yukina forward.

“Onee-chan, do Uncle and Aunt not know about you yet?”

…