Chapter 2 part 1

'Ah, so it's not in that kind of meaning... shit, it's like I got completely brainwashed unwittingly.'

"Well, this girl is also one of the candidates. If it looks like she has good prospect, I won't stop you from that."

"No, stop me! As an elder sister, as a person in position of responsibility!"

"Also, I'll make Sylvia report whether you make progress in your relation with those lasses or not."

'So that was your true objective making Sylvia my subordinate! Isn't that just a nice way of saying that she is my overseer!

"Err―, are you fine with that? Having me as your captain?"

"Yes! Sylvia is the number one member of Kizuna squad desu. It's an honor desu!"

She was looking up at him with bright eyes.

Kizuna was unable to do anything except powerlessly smile towards that pure eyes.

"As poor as I am, Sylvia too will do her best! I will become the strength of Captain, I want to make this strategy a success desu!"

"At first it's only Sylvia, but I expect you to someday become a captain that leads the Heart Hybrid Gear force, Amaterasu."

"...That's a really unthinkable long distance for me."

After the car drove for ten minutes, they arrived at the destination.

"Eh... this place is"

When he got off the electric automobile that was automatically driven, he was in front of a building that he recognized.

"Sylvia will explain desu! This is the Heart Hybrid Gear laboratory desu. It's called Nayuta Lab. But, why is this place called Nayuta Lab?"

"That's..."

That was because his mother's name was Hida Nayuta.

Sylvia returned back using the car after that and Reiri and Kizuna entered the lab.

They walked a corridor that he was familiar with.

When he was a child, he had come many times to this lab. He felt strange freshness and nostalgia.

"But, is this corridor this narrow? The ceiling is also low, even the entrance should be bigger."

Kizuna spoke while observing the pure white corridor.

"You are the one that had grown bigger."

Reiri who was walking ahead gave a calm retort.

'There's that.'

Before long, they arrived in front of the room that his mother once used as her research room.

Nervousness ran in Kizuna's heart.

"This is Reiri. I'm entering."

It was an excessively spacious and pure white room.

At the center, there was a console that looked like a cockpit. A lot of floating windows were surrounding that console.

In front of that console, a girl in a white research coat was sitting. She was busily operating the keyboard and touch panel.

"This girl is the supervisor of this lab, the person working in charge of Ataraxia's technology, Shikina Kei."

When she was introduced, she turned to Kizuna with a glance.

She had a petite body so he didn't know but, it seemed that she was the same age as Reiri. Her hair was in a bob cut style and put in place by several pins, perhaps it was so that the hair wouldn't become a hindrance in work.

Her cold eyes behind her glasses were observing Kizuna intently.

She didn't say anything and turned her back to him before running her fingers through the console's keyboard.

A floating window popped up in front of Kizuna.

{How do you do. I am Shikina Kei. A close friend of your big sister since our time as students. You can call me Kei. Nice to meet you, Hida Kizuna.}

"..."

"She is a fellow that is poor in communications with other people. Well, don't mind it."

"Y, yes. Then... why am I here?"

"It's for adjusting your Heart Hybrid Gear."

Kizuna's heart jumped sharply in his chest.

'Don't tell me, Kaa-san will?'

"I'll say this first, but if it's mother then she isn't here."

"Eh-? Is, is that so..."

He felt complicated, as if he was relieved and disappointed.

"That person right now is missing."

'――Ha!?'

"Missing you say... how?"

"She disappeared. A certain day when we noticed, she was already nowhere."

"Disappeared? Just where in the world did she go then?"

"Because we don't know that we say she disappeared."

"But, with the world right now, just to where can she go? She cannot move anywhere except to the other floats in this Megafloat Japan, the coming and going of people is also being managed. She should be discovered immediately right?"

Kei was typing with a speed that even the eye couldn't follow.

{She couldn't be found. No matter what we did anywhere. Looking just from the investigation result, Professor Nayuta right now is not in Megafloat Japan anymore.}

"That's... was she moving when we came into contact with other country's float?"

{That's one of the possibilities. But, if the professor felt like it, the security of all float will be meaningless. Searching for her is a pointless waste of time.}

Just what in the world happened?

He thought that even a mother like that was advancing her research for the sake of the world and mankind... despite that, she vanished in this essential time, there was a degree even for being irresponsible.

"Kaa-san... just what in the world is she thinking?"

"Who knows. That person's thinking cannot be understood by us. I don't even want to understand anyway."

Reiri spitted those words out.

{But, last month an unregistered mail was sent to us. The content was the data regarding the ability of Hida Kizuna, about your Eros. Most likely it was something written by Professor Nayuta.}

"Eh? Then..."

{Of course, we tracked the mail but it was pointless. It's just, there is only one person in the whole world that knows of the detailed data of Heart Hybrid Gear. Only Professor Hida Nayuta.}

"Kei analyzed that data, it was three days ago when the meaning and conclusion of the data could be derived. And then I called you here."

When Kei operated the console, windows were started up around Kizuna, several formulas and graphs that he couldn't comprehend were displayed.

{This is a ground-breaking discovery. It is explaining about the special ability that is possible only by Hida Kizuna's Eros.}

"My gear?"

"Right. And then, there is also the answer about just why the performance of your Heart Hybrid Gear is low there."

Kizuna's heart felt a sharp pain.

Without a single change in expression, Kei continued to type in the keyboard.

{The performance of Hida Kizuna's Heart Hybrid Gear is low because he has no aptitude, that explanation is not accurate. The correct answer is, because you are a male that the trait is different.}

Because he was a male?

{Only after Heart Hybrid Gear was installed into a female that it would display its original performance. The reason was unknown, but from the experiment result, it had to be recognized as fact.}

Reiri nodded in affirmation.

"In reality, we are sorting out the candidates who have high aptitude for Heart Hybrid Gear and also excellent skill, but the chosen personnel are all female students."

So that was it. Because of that, the ones who possessed Heart Hybrid Gear, Chidorigafuchi, Himekawa, and Yurishia, all of them were girls.

{However, we understand that this is the difference of trait between male and female. In exchange for male's low battle ability, their consumption rate of Hybrid Count is little.}

"Eh! Isn't that really advantageous――"

"Their Life Saver is long lasting I guess. However, only having high stamina won't defeat the enemy."

Kizuna was jumping in joy, but his shoulders immediately dropped in dejection.

{But, your Heart Hybrid Gear [Eros] has a special ability that is only available when it is installed in a male.}

"That's, the special ability, that was written in Kaa-san's mail?"

{Correct. That is the Heart Hybrid phenomenon. We called it [Union Remodelling].}

Kizuna recalled yesterday's occurrence.

"That's the thing that I did with Chidorigafuchi yesterday right?"

"Right. I also explained it in the general meeting yesterday."

If he remembered right, with two people, man and female possessing Heart Hybrid Gear, their body and heart into one, sharing their affection and pleasure... something like that.

{With the proffesor's data as the basis, we tried various simulations. The result, we obtained the conclusion that this was something that only Hida Kizuna's Eros could do. For that reason, we called Hida Kizuna from Tokyo float until Ataraxia in a great rush.}

So that's it... he finally felt like he could comprehend the situation.

{There is an unlimited possibility in this technology. It's not limited to simply replenishing energy, it also included the possibility of realizing power up of the Heart Hybrid Gear. An addition of new weapon that is not there until now. We are also having expectations for that.}

Now that she mentioned that... before this, Chidorigafuchi was also talking about something strange.

"Is there any relation about that with this thing called Corruption Armament?"

Kei's hands stopped. She was staring intently at Kizuna.

However, he couldn't read Kei's thinking at all from her face. He felt like she was not looking at him, but perhaps to something that was behind him.

Kei's fingers moved while she was still facing him.

{Where did you hear that story from?}

"Err, just now from Chidorigafuchi..."

{I see, I understand. Exactly, they are connected. Until the end, Heart Hybrid is nothing more than energy replenishment for Heart Hybrid Gear. However, when the heart and body become one even far deeper than that, the two's energy resonance will reach the limit and one can obtain a new weapon, the [Corruption Armament].}

"What kind of weapon is that?"

{Unknown. But from the research result, we can only confirm that such a weapon exists. But no one has seen it before, so it cannot be verified.}

"And Aine wanted that?"

"Yeah. At that time, I didn't get it all just what she was talking about though. In short, she wanted to do erotic things and obtain a new weapon... something like that."

Reiri crossed her hands and smiled.

"Isn't that fine? Give her that present."

Kizuna's face scowled.

"But, I said this yesterday at the auditorium too, I think that it's important to consider each other's feeling in this. Even if Nee-chan suddenly told me to do that kind of things with a girl that I just met for the first time, that's obviously impossible isn't it?"

"Is that so? I think that this is a happy situation for a man."

"We, well, perhaps that's so but….. that's not it! Even though I look like this, I have reasoning and common sense! Hearing an absurd story like that, you think I can just suddenly say 'Oh, okay'! Just what kind of harem manga this is!"

"It's fine like this. I've made all kinds of preparations."

{Not touching the feast before one's eyes is a man's shame.}

Even Kei was backing up Reiri.

"Bu, but even so, the feeling of the other party cannot be ignored I told you!"

"Then, everything will be fine if you just make those lasses to like you."

"No... that's impossible. If you use your common sense."

"But, if you don't do it then Heart Hybrid cannot be realized."

Just why on earth were they this persistent?

Whatever the circumstances may be, their methods and ways were irrational, they were too forceful.

"About that, I have a stupid question here."

"What?"

"When I was doing experiment as a child it was the same but, this energy of Heart Hybrid Gear will naturally recover to normal if you just leave it alone? Just why do I have to go that far to recover this energy?"

"That's..."

Reiri was unusually hesitating to talk. Kei's fingers were also tapping on the keyboard, but they were hovering in the air without going anywhere as if lost.

"...It takes too much time, waiting for the energy to recover naturally."

{Just as we explained previously, the energy consumption rate of males are low. Furthermore, the experiment result of Hida Kizuna in the end is just from the initial stage experiment content. It cannot compare with the amount consumed in real battle. Also, the greater the obtained combat ability is, the compensation for that is also great. In this half year since the Second Another Universe Conflict, all of this has been proven.}

"I see... similar with a car, if they travel a lot then it will take a lot of fuel to consume, if the performance is high then the fuel consumption is also bad, so it's something like that."

"Rather than that, let's accomplish our objective today. The adjustment of Eros. If it goes well, it might be able to power up you know?"

"Eh!? Power up?"

Kizuna became excited.

"Right. It's great that you saved Aine in the battle yesterday, but it's a problem that you already fell from just that much mass. According to the data sent by mother last month, it seems that adjustment matching the wearer's age is necessary. Though it's different from Heart Hybrid, in the end this is just on the level of adjustment."

"Even so at least the performance will go up a little!"

"That's right."

Reiri smiled gently.

Kei stood up from the console and moved close to Reiri. She pointed at a door and whispered something to Reiri in a small voice.

"Kizuna, if you go through that door, at the end of the path is the adjustment room. There is also a change of clothes there, so go ahead first and finish your change."

"Roger!"

Kizuna got out of the room with joy welling up within him.

Silence visited the room where Reiri and Kei were left behind.

Worry was carved at Reiri's forehead.

Kei faced Reiri and whispered in a voice that could be barely heard.

"Re-ri. Is it fine... to not tell him the truth?"

"Yeah, this is something that someday I have to tell him... I know that."

Kei closed her eyes and nodded.

"I think it's fine for Re-ri to follow your determination."

"Sorry, Kei."

Kei's lips smiled a little.