Dan Katō and Hyuga Haruhiko's work proceeded smoothly, with the mothership and airborne combat equipment entering their final round of testing and calibration.
By comparison, the Special Equipment Section, which specialized in air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, had moved even faster—under Sarutobi Erina's increasingly capable command, the personal flight devices seized from the Sky Ninja had, in a short time, been organically integrated with the Special Ninja Gear Corps' original equipment!
The "Hound" series armaments developed for aerial combat had now fully entered live-combat training. To that end, the Special Equipment Section had specifically recruited new personnel from both the Nara Clan and the Yamanaka Clan, making targeted preparations for the next phase of operations.
"According to the plan, pilots for the Crow Hound, which specializes in air-to-air combat, will be jointly selected from members of the Nara Clan and Yamanaka Clan, while the White Wolf Hound, responsible for air-to-ground combat, will be assigned to the Inuzuka Clan... This arrangement mainly takes into account that the Nara Clan must also shoulder the crucial task of commanding the mothership, while the Yamanaka Clan must divide their attention for communications work. I hope you can understand."
Erina gave a slight nod and respectfully explained the specific allocation of duties for this operation to her teacher, Motonari.
Yet compared with the lively, free-spirited princess she had once been, Erina—after her heart-to-heart conversation with Dean Yamada, and having decided to "stand beside Soji as a great tree"—had gradually begun to display the commanding presence befitting the leader of the Special Equipment Unit!
At the very least, from Nara Motonari's perspective, Erina's manner and tone had unconsciously begun to grow more and more like Soji's...
This, in turn, affected Motonari's working attitude—this old slacker had abandoned his former lazy, muddling-through ways, and even his speech had