Capítulo 18: Chapter 1
Kizuna was peeking at Aine from the cover of a building.
Since he was trying to know more about Aine, he had been following Aine for these past three days all the time to observe her.
Saying it frankly, he was stalking her.
Right now was afternoon break. Aine went away from the school towards the park to eat the bento that she bought in the middle of going there.
Kizuna tried to hide behind the digital signage display lining the road and peeked at the situation.
After this, Aine would return to the classroom with barely any time to spare like usual, after school she would go to the command headquarters to train and practice. When she finished she went directly to the dormitory. When she arrived at the dormitory, she wouldn't go outside anymore for the day.
"Just following her around doesn't give me any clue..."
"What kind of clue are you looking for?"
"UWAA!"
Suddenly a voice called out to him from behind, making Kizuna jump in shock.
"Hi-, Himekawa!?"
Himekawa Hayuru was standing there with her hands on her hips.
"What in the world are you doing, Hida-kun?"
"No, no. This is... that…"
Hayuru breathed an amazed sigh.
"Just when I heard that there is a student stalking a female student, and try to look... really, a person like you is..."
"This, this is a misunderstanding! I'm not doing anything I need to feel guilty for――"
"What do you want to know about Aine-san?"
"Eh?"
Himekawa put out her face from behind the digital signage display and stared at Aine.
"I too have questions about her since before. Her usual words are also hard to describe as a normal person, and most of all, her unusual fixation towards battle. That fixation of hers already went off the proper track."
"I'm concerned as a fellow member of Amaterasu. Can something be done to help her? Surely you too are thinking like that right?"
Kizuna nodded largely.
IMG_000 (12)
"When did Himekawa get to know her?"
"It was at the high school entrance ceremony I think. I remember feeling that 'there is a really beautiful girl here' that time. At that time, Aine-san already had a Core finished installed inside her."
"Is that so... then is there anybody that knows about Chidorigafuchi in middle school?"
"No. Aine-san didn't go through middle school. She was admitted starting from high school... it seems there is no one that particularly knows her from before."
Was it impossible to know more than this?
――No,
Based on how she had a Core installed in her, surely there should be some clue in that place.
Part 2
Kizuna visited the laboratory of Heart Hybrid Gear, [Nayuta Lab].
{Hida Kizuna, what is your business?}
When he entered the laboratory, there was Shikina Kei there facing the console that was like a cockpit.
"Can I get the information about Chidorigafuchi's past?"
{An authority to release the information is necessary. Chidorigafuchi Aine's information level is high. It cannot be released with Hida Kizuna's authority level.}
"No, it's fine even if it's not any important information. For example, something like her birthplace or her elementary school."
{Everything is listed as secret. The information cannot be disclosed.}
What's with that?
"Even though I have the authority to know everyone's personal information as well as their three sizes and their location in the real time? Then who in the world can look at Chidorigafuchi's information?"
{The only one with the authority for that in Ataraxia is only Hida Reiri.}
'So it's Nee-chan.'
"Got it, I'll ask Nee-chan. Perhaps she is in the command headquarters right――"
"No need for that."
The entrance of the room opened and Hida Reiri with her long black hair fluttering behind her entered.
"Nee-chan!"
"Kizuna, you want to know about Aine's past?"
"Yeah. I want to know."
"Why?"
"I'm... worried about her. I have something worrying me even though I cannot say it clearly, but it feels really frustrating――"
No, wrong.
That was not it.
"――Perhaps, I'm feeling irritated. That girl is not thinking about other people, about herself, even whether she would die or anything at all."
[A worthless worry isn't it?] (TN: This is a flashback of Aine's words, not Kei)
"What is inside that girl's head is just to obtain an even more powerful weapon, she is thinking that something like our worry is really trivial."
[What I cannot forgive the most, is my low combat ability.]
"She is not thinking of raising her combat strength for the sake of surviving. I don't understand her. Because I don't understand, it irritates me."
[I see... it seems that this is pointless isn't it.]
Her sad back was reflected in his eyelids.
"That's why I want to know about her!"
Reiri crossed her arms and listened to Kizuna's words.
"...Fine then. I'll teach you."
"Really!?"
"But, even the information that we have about Chidorigafuchi Aine is limited. Understand that."
Kizuna nodded silently.
"The beginning of this matter is seven years ago. Tokyo... not the one in Megafloat, it was at the mainland Tokyo, the imperial palace there is surrounded by canals around it and there is a canal there named Chidorigafuchi. A report that a girl was floating there was received. That girl was sheltered then, that was――"
"That's Chidorigafuchi?"
"Correct. The girl who was sent to hospital and opened her eyes didn't remember at all, just why was she in that kind of place. On the contrary, where did she come from, who was she, she couldn't even recall those information. She didn't even know her own name, that was the state she was in."
"So she is... amnesic?"
Reiri nodded.
"She didn't have any external wound, so it was examined to be caused by temporary shock. However, even after that there was no sign at all that she was recovering her memory."
"But, didn't Chidorigafuchi's family search for her? There must have been search requests coming out."
"There was nothing. It seems the police made a search, but Aine's family couldn't be found in the end. Her appearance looked like she was around ten years old, so the elementary schools throughout Japan were searched, but there was not a single clue."
"Then... as expected she was from abroad?"
"Even asking around the Immigration Bureau didn't result in any clue."
Then, just where in the world Chidorigafuchi came from?
"The person herself was an extremely normal and healthy girl. There was also no problem in the examination result. But――"
Reiri knitted her eyebrows.
"It's just, there was only one point that was worthy of special mention. Her aptitude for Heart Hybrid Gear is abnormally high."
"Abnormally...? Is Chidorigafuchi that great?"
"Recently she is falling behind Yurishia and Himekawa. Her Zeros exhibited its ability in close range battle, but it's disadvantaged when there is a distance with the enemy. It's not that her talent is inferior, but the difference in the gear's aptitude resulted in a large difference of battle results."
...So that was how it was.
"――Anyway, the one who had an eye at that girl's high aptitude, was our mother."
Kizuna's heart felt like it was grasped tightly.
"Mother took custody of Aine. Even the one who named her Chidorigafuchi Aine was also our mother. And then, Aine was made to engage in the research and development of Heart Hybrid Gear."
"Then... since then, all this time?"
"Right. She was staying in this lab all day, becoming a guinea pig."
"Then, her school?"
"She started attending school from high school."
"I see... so she finally started a normal life only since high school."
"That was when the practical application test began."
"..."
Then... that girl.
Since she was a child, she was isolated in this lab,
All the time as a guinea pig,
All alone,
The only thing she had was the Heart Hybrid Gear and Professor Hida Nayuta.
Excellent talent.
But, she was overtook by her rivals.
――After that?
Suddenly, an alert window popped up. All over the room was filled with crimson floating windows and alarms.
"Kei! What's going on."
{Enemy attack. Enemy warship appeared two hundred kilometers ahead of Ataraxia.}
"Enemy scale?"
{One two thousand meter-class battleship. Roughly thirty warships below one thousand meter-class. Half among them are aircraft carriers, the remaining seem to be escort ships.}
"Wha...!"
As expected, even Reiri lost her words.
It was an unprecedented large fleet.
Until now, there were cases where they battled enemy ships, but the number of enemy ships were invariably only one. Even so each time they received vast damage from them.
And now there were thirty ships.
To encounter this large fleet, perhaps this was the first time since the mainland decisive battle of the Second Another Universe Conflict. If they entered battle situation like this, it couldn't possibly be imagined that whether it was Ataraxia or Megafloat Japan could go through this safely.
"Kei, connect the line to the command room! There is no time to return there, I'll take command from here."
{Roger.}
The alert windows disappeared, and in their place windows that displayed the battle network and Megafloat Japan's information appeared in large amount.
All those made a lump like a school of fish in the center of the room, connected to each other organically, building up a system. The walls in four directions and the ceiling, the floor surface too, all became monitors that were reproducing Ataraxia's outside.
Kizuna saw the enemy fleet that was projected on the wall.
The black battleship that looked like it was cutting apart the blue sky was floating in the sky. Patterns that didn't seem like words or shapes were shining on the ship's body.
It was a fantastical battleship that was obviously made from different technology than mankind.
Its shape was completely unrelated with fluid mechanics or aerodynamics. Its width was wide, gun turrets were directed at every direction. It felt like a fortress or a castle of middle age Europe was flying in the sky together with its defensive wall.
That figure of an object with gigantic mass leisurely flying in the sky couldn't be described as anything but absurd.
{Connection with the command room is finished. The time lag is about ten milliseconds. There will be no problem for you to give instructions thinking of me as the command room.}
Kei lifted her face a little. Her gaze met Reiri's and both of them wordlessly nodded at each other.
"Okay, calculate the evasion course of Ataraxia."
Kei's arm was dashing on top of the console with tremendous speed.
{Most likely the enemy fleet is coming from Solomon direction. Ataraxia's evasion course calculation complete. Now running away to the northwest direction with full speed.}
"The time until the encounter with the enemy!"
{If the situation doesn't change, we will enter the enemy fleet's firing range in fifteen more minutes.}
The flagship of the enemy fleet, the two thousand meter-class large battleship was magnified, its gun turret was largely projected.
{What will be the threat is the main cannon of this large battleship. If we are bombarded continuously by this, Megafloat Japan will sink.}
Reiri clicked her lips.
"All members of Amaterasu, reply!"
Responding to Reiri's voice, Aine, Himekawa, and Yurishia's faces were reflected in the appearing windows. Looking at the background behind them, it seemed that the three of them were in a classroom.
"You understand the situation? Then all hands, sortie!"
{Roger!}
The three saluted and cut off the transmission.
Reiri faced Kei and yelled.
"Activate all defensive systems of Ataraxia as well as Megafloat Japan's all area!"
{Roger.}
Reiri pulled an operating window floating in the air to her. She tapped an icon for broadcasting towards the whole of Ataraxia from inside it.
"Informing all students! This is not practice or a school event, this is a real battle! Show your efforts' result to those another universe lot!"
The window that projected the image inside the school showed the students standing up from their seat and exited the classroom. Each one of them were scattering to every department of Ataraxia in order to accomplish the order assigned to them. The technology department performed confirmation on the defense installation inside Ataraxia, combat department used those weapons and intercepted the enemy.
Ataraxia that entered battle state made a complete change at the city's appearance. Shutter was lowered down on the buildings' walls, important facilities was lowered underground. In reverse combat facilities were appearing from underground to the above ground.
The street opened and unmanned aircrafts appeared from inside, they made use of the straight road to launch. The camouflaged buildings opened, showing particle cannons which began charging while scattering electrical discharge. The ground of the park opened up like a shutter and middle-range missiles peeked out their heads from below.
"Yosh, then me too!"
Kizuna who was going to go outside was stopped by Reiri.
"Wait Kizuna. You are staying here."
"W, why!?"
"It's meaningless even if you go now. For now wait here."
"Just why is it meaningless!? Even I can do something if it's against the likes of category-C magic weapons!"
"That's why. Currently, magic weapons of C-class and lower that even you can face still haven't come out yet. Besides, exposing yourself towards the enemy warship's firepower with your mobility is just suicidal."
"Kuh..."
"If the enemy let out their landing unit, that time will be your turn. Until then prepare yourself."
Kizuna stared at the figures of Himekawa, Yurishia, and Aine which were projected on the huge monitor.
The three of them were already putting on their Heart Hybrid Gear and flew heading to the enemy fleet.
Himekawa was staring at the information sent from the battlefield network so hard, a hole might be created in it.
"This is the first time a warship that huge came... moreover, a fleet that large... really, can we protect the Megafloat until the end... when I think that the future of Ataraxia and everyone is put on our shoulders..."
A deeply depressed voice came out from Himekawa's mouth.
"That's really not like you Hayuru. Well, it's going to be fine if we just do our best I wonder?"
In contrast, Yurishia's voice was bright. She was carefree as if playing a game after going home from school.
"...Aine-san, are you okay?"
Aine was shouldering a machine gun on her back, a great number of magazines were hanged on her waist. And then in her hand was an anti-material rifle, Barrett M82A1 dangling down.
"I'm fine you ask? I don't understand the meaning of your question."
"Ah, no. The bombardment of the battleship will be fierce, so please don't force yourself. Aine-san specializes in close range after all, so follow after us――"
"That's unnecessary help."
Aine declared to Himekawa coldly.
The enemy fleet visible far away was gradually becoming bigger.
In front of the three, Reiri's floating window was opened.
{Listen well. What you need to shoot down is the enemy's flagship, the two thousand meter-class large battleship. It will be fifteen more minutes until that ship catches Ataraxia in its shooting range. Before that happens, crush the enemy's main cannon!}
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