I participated in the “Commandant and Any Construct Mission” project.

This is a story about Wanshi: Hypnos and the Commandant.
The Commandant can be read as any gender.
They are not particularly close yet.

⚠️ Contains various headcanons/fabricated elements and depictions of blood.
Please read only if you are okay with that.

⚠️ This was translated from the original Japanese with the help of translation tools.
There may be some awkward phrasing, so I would appreciate your understanding.

The order was brief.

Ground-level ruins — the site of a former energy facility.
Punishing Virus concentration: elevated.
Objective: investigate and eliminate threats.

Under headquarters directive, a joint squad was assembled from select members of Gray Raven and Strike Hawk.

◇

Dust still drifted through the broken steel frames.

The massive reactor that had once powered the facility lay collapsed. Rusted beams jutted from the debris, red particulate matter riding the wind in slow, dull drifts. Particle concentration in the atmosphere had long since exceeded safe limits, and the air carried a constant haze. Semi-hardened fragments scraped faintly underfoot.

Hypnos recalculated the battlefield.

Remaining hostile signatures: three.
Suppression rate: rising.
Close-combat units: offline.
The line was stabilizing.

—The dust twisted back for a split second.

Blast pressure. Red light.

As the flare collapsed, the Commandant’s thermal signature slipped from view.

Hypnos did not lower the rifle.
Search priority shifted.

[Thermal signature detected]
[Vitals: weak but stable]
[Abdominal trauma confirmed]
[Foreign body reaction present]

—Visual magnification engaged.

[High-density reaction detected beneath dermal layer]
[Crystallized fragment embedded]
[Material: unidentified]
[Composition analysis: pending]
[Penetration depth: outer exoskeleton breached]
[Internal tissue contact confirmed]
[Priority: hostile elimination]

Hypnos disengaged the rifle’s loading limiter.

Remaining hostiles: three.
Second-form transition confirmed.
Humanoid mutation incomplete.
Trajectory prediction: correction complete.

Through the haze, the aberrants’ silhouettes wavered. Their hardened red carapaces had not fully formed. Fast — but still within calculable parameters.

The barrel shifted by a fraction.

—Trigger pulled.

First round: knee joint destroyed.
Target down.

The half-formed armor fractured, exposing the core.
Second round: direct hit.

Second target: closing from the flank.

Line of fire adjusted half a step.
Shoulder shattered.
In the instant it stalled — one round to the center of the thorax.

Third target: mutation incomplete.

It pressed forward, still radiating red light.

The calculation was already complete.

Trigger pulled.

Head core: penetrated.

The red glow flared once, then dissolved into particles. Half-hardened fragments scattered across the rubble.

[Processing load: decreasing]
[Hostile signatures: eliminated]
[Threat factors on firing line: zero]

The combat-end signal registered.

But Hypnos’s calculations did not stop.

The reverb of the blast faded. Dust settled slowly to the ground. Visual noise diminished, and priorities restructured.

[Primary objective: hostile elimination — complete]
[Secondary objective: casualty status — reassessment]
[Recalculation: initiated]

Hypnos shouldered the rifle and crossed the rubble.

The thermal signature’s coordinates remained unchanged.
Life signs: faint, but holding.

He moved in beside the Commandant, who lay in the shadow of the debris. One knee touched down. The suspended analysis resumed.

Subcutaneous foreign body reaction: rescan.
High-density hardened fragment: reaction values with surrounding tissue rising.
The numbers shifted quietly. Chromatic data drifted toward the red.

Composition analysis: cross-referencing.

A beat of silence.

[Cross-reference result: match rate rising]

It was not a simple fragment.

High-density particles scattered during combat had crystallized in an instant. Upon contact with organic tissue, they carried the potential to trigger a Punishing infection response.

The waveform flickered.

[Punishing contamination probability: calculating]
[Assessment: indeterminate range]

Below threshold.
But not within the stable range either.

No warning tone accompanied the display. Yet somewhere inside Hypnos, the priority order quietly rearranged itself.

The enemy had been eliminated—

but it was not over.

Slowly, his gaze lifted.

The Commandant was looking back at him.

◇

“—It’s all right. Don’t move.”

Wanshi: Hypnos deployed the medical bag.

[Abdominal armor junction: no re-bleeding]
[Vitals: weak but stable]
[Priority treatment: circulatory maintenance]

He released the helmet lock on the exoskeleton. The pressure seal broke, revealing a pale face.

Consciousness: maintained.
Gaze: tracking.

“…Sorry. I messed up.”

The voice was low, but clear.

Wanshi gave a small nod, then opened the arm plating. The panel slid aside, exposing the undersuit beneath. He broke open a serum ampoule, drew it into a syringe, established venous access, and administered the dose.

The Commandant leaned against the rubble, steadying their breathing. The hand pressed to their abdomen trembled faintly.

“I’m the one who should be sorry.”

Wanshi looked around.

The escort frames that had been handling close combat were already offline. The remains of the aberrants had crumbled into particles, leaving only red traces across the rubble.

“We didn’t have our main force today. …If Kamui or Lucia had been here, things might have gone differently.”

No emotion colored his voice.

It was only a hypothesis, stated as fact.

“…Can’t be helped. It was a sudden deployment. For the personnel we had, this result is more than enough.”

The words had the shape of a quip, but none of the force.

Beyond the haze, the sky had gone a dull white. Wanshi lowered his gaze. He did not know the Gray Raven Commandant deeply. Not yet.

But the speed of their judgment in the field, their composure, the voice that rallied those around them — those things, he had seen more than once.

“True. —Leave the rest to me. It’s my turn now.”

Wanshi examined the wound.

At the edge of the crack in the exoskeleton, red seeped through. Not just blood. The color was too dark to be ordinary particulate residue.

At the edge of his vision, a readout updated silently. The waveform shifted — deviating, just slightly, from stable.

“…It’s a bit deep. It reached the inside of the exoskeleton. I’ll need to stop the bleeding, and—”

His extended fingers stopped mid-motion.

The Commandant had taken hold of his wrist.

The grip was not strong.
But there was no hesitation in it.

The air changed.

“—Wanshi.”

The Commandant’s breath went shallow, once.

“I might be infected. …That’s what you’re seeing, isn’t it?”

Their voice was calm.

It was less a question than a confirmation.

The hand pressed to their abdomen lowered slowly. At the split edge of the exoskeleton, red seeped through. It was not simple bleeding. Punishing particles clung and swirled around the wound’s edge, then fell away into the gaps between the rubble.

Wanshi watched in silence.

“If it’s too late—”

The Commandant’s pale lips parted slowly. Their gaze did not waver.

“Don’t hesitate. Shoot.”

A soldier’s order.

On the battlefield, sentiment left room for death.

Wanshi did not answer.

For one moment, looking into those steady eyes, the worst option surfaced.

Then, quietly, he set it aside.

“—Not yet.”

Low. Soft.

“It hasn’t started.”

Wanshi brought his gaze back to the wound.

“Trust my calculations. If it comes to that—then. Not before.”

He grabbed the hem of his own uniform and tore away a strip of cloth in one clean motion. The dry sound carried through the still air.

He folded it carefully and held it out.

“Bite down on this.”

His voice was easy.

“If it hurts, you can hit me.”

The Commandant exhaled faintly.

“…Brace yourself.”

It had the shape of a joke.

The tone was entirely sincere.

They took the cloth and placed it between their teeth.

Wanshi drew a hemostatic pad from the medical bag and worked quickly, clearing away the blood. Warm blood soaked across the medical gloves. Where it had dripped between the rubble, it spread and darkened.

He applied the cleansing solution.

White mist touched the wound — and in that instant, the Commandant’s shoulder jolted. Their breathing broke raggedly through the cloth.

“—…!!”

Wanshi carefully widened the crack in the exoskeleton.

Inside, a red crystal fragment was embedded deep.

The surrounding tissue was torn. Blood welled steadily. The red of the Punishing particles had mixed into it, deepening the color.

Wanshi steadied his breathing once.

“—Here we go.”

He pressed his fingertips into the torn wound and eased inward.

Slowly.

The Commandant’s muscles contracted, resisting him. The crystal fragment was lodged deep, caught between the exoskeleton and the flesh.

Without hesitation, Wanshi applied force.

He peeled it free.

And in that moment—

The Commandant’s back pressed hard against the rubble. Their teeth clenched on the cloth. A suppressed groan shook at the back of their throat. Blood surged all at once, dyeing Wanshi’s gloves red.

The waveform spiked.

“—Gh—!! Aah—!!”

“…Hold on. Almost there.”

His voice stayed level.

Wanshi’s fingers closed around the fragment and drew it out slowly. The instant it met open air, it pulsed with deep red-black light — then crumbled away, grain by grain, into nothing.

The Commandant’s vitals swung violently.

Wanshi brought one arm around them, drawing their head against him.

—Dropping.

The moment the numbers brushed the red threshold, the weight in his arms increased.

The Commandant’s body lost tension and sank against Wanshi’s shoulder. They were still conscious — he could tell. Rough breathing continued.

Wanshi pressed hemostatic material to the wound and held pressure.

The Punishing particles inside the Commandant began to weaken.

“…You did well.”

He patted their back once, twice.

The Commandant spat the cloth onto the ground. Then, as if forcing their breathing back into order, they turned up the corner of their mouth.

“…That hurt so much I almost beat you half to death.”

“Did you. …You were shaking pretty hard for someone ready to do that.”

They looked at each other.

And despite everything, they laughed.

◇

In the distance, the engines of the transport ship began to drone.

Wanshi adjusted the compression on the wound dressing as he spoke.

“Can you stand?”

“…I have to. Or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

The Commandant braced one knee beneath them.

The next moment, their vision tilted.

Their body listed to the side.

Before they could fall, an arm came around them.

No hesitation in the motion.

Wanshi’s arm settled naturally around the Commandant’s back and drew them in. Dust and the smell of blood. Close enough to feel each other’s breath. The sound of fragments underfoot, quiet and sparse.

The Commandant closed their eyes for just a moment, then opened them slowly.

“…Earlier.”

Their voice was rough.

“Did you hesitate?”

A light question.

But it cut to the center.

Wanshi blinked once and lifted a shoulder.

“Hard to say. I didn’t have much room to hesitate.”

A slight tilt of his head.

“If something had happened to you, I’d have been torn apart by the Gray Raven crew.”

His voice sounded as if he were swallowing a yawn.

The Commandant raised an eyebrow and smiled faintly.

“…I can’t argue with that.”

“Right?”

“So really, I was just protecting myself. And you, while I was at it.”

The Commandant let go.

But for just a moment, their fingertips brushed the fabric.

“—Thank you, Wanshi.”

Wanshi’s eyes softened, just slightly.

“Mm. …The transport’s coming. Hero.”

He kept a hand at their shoulder as they started walking.

The downdraft from the transport pressed down overhead. Through the grey drift of particles, Wanshi raised his hand naturally, shielding the Commandant’s eyes.

Residual heat still lingered in his armor.

The Commandant felt it clearly through the arm supporting them.

“Come on. Let’s go home.”