Chapter 4

"I cannot obtain the Corruption Armament. In the end, I'm just a human that has no use whatsoever. From the beginning I don't have any worth for living."

At that time, a vibration like an earthquake shook the floor.

Aine made a deprecating smile towards herself.

"Sooner or later, this Ataraxia too will end from taking on that large battleship as an opponent. Because of my fault, everyone will die――"

"Cut it out! Chidorigafuchi!"

Kizuna's angry yell struck Aine.

"...What, what's with you?"

His pressure that was different from anything so far made Aine wince.

"Shut up and listen, you cocky girl! You're not useful? You don't have any worth for living? And what's with you saying only thirty enemies? I'm still at zero enemies here, total zero! Ain't you super skilled already shooting down that many enemies! Also just because I cannot do Heart Hybrid that well, don't make it all as my fault! Even I am not that used to girls. If I get approached by a transcendent beauty like you, there is no way I'm going to understand just what the hell I should do, you know! Understand my feelings too!"

"Wha, what, so you are now proud that you're a good-for-nothing! It's fine if you just laid your hands on me! Someone like me, doesn't have any great worth, in the first place I'm a human that didn't exist!"

"Stop shitting me! You are beautiful, your style is great, your status is absurdly high."

Aine's cheeks were dyed red in a flash.

"Thi, things like those cannot defeat the enemy!"

"Who cares-! Besides, something like your worth of living, or your usefulness, that' not something that you should talk like you know anything about it. Aren't you just treasuring yourself. You just think that you are the best and get insecure when no one fusses over you! You are just unable to accept the gap between your ideal self and the real you! Just because there are those you cannot win against, that there are people even more superior than yourself, you abased yourself and got sulky, isn't that what this is about!"

Aine's expression changed from bewilderment to fury.

"...Don't talk like you know anything!"

However, Kizuna continued without caring.

"Listen well! Even if you think that you don't have any talent, that you are not a big deal at all, then what you have to do is think about what you who is like that can do. What should you do so that even your power can be useful? Make your way of thinking like that. If you do that, then there will be no one in this world whose existence is unnecessary!!"

Aine shook her head as if saying that she didn't want to listen.

"Aah, annoying! I don't want to hear a sermon that is just lip-service!"

Light ran through Aine's Zeros. The thruster on her elbow was shining.

"Quickly step aside from there! Or else I'm going to strike you to death right here!"

Aine pulled back her fist. It was a stance where she could pierce through Kizuna's body anytime.

"So you are going to wring out your last energy to beat to death a single man that irritated you? How great, this dunce-sama that once aimed to be the strongest."

Aine's eyes were wrapped in a dangerous color.

"You are really going to die."

"Do as you like."

He accepted the gaze filled with killing intent right from the front.

"HA-!!"

Aine's arms headed to Kizuna in an attack.

Tremendous wind pressure struck Kizuna's face. Wind was rolled up and raised the dust of the floor whirling.

Aine's fist stopped a centimeter in front of Kizuna's nose's tip.

"...-!!"

Aine made a voice from biting her back teeth.

"Why didn't you dodge!? At least deploy your Life Saver! This idiot-!!"

Kizuna laughed powerlessly.

"Honestly, it's tiresome to even dodge... something like deploying Life Saver, is absolutely impossible for me."

Aine suddenly realized that Kizuna's hair was wet.

"You, don't tell me, you went to save me when I fell into the sea..."

Kizuna awkwardly averted his sight.

"No, my mobility is not great like yours after all. I ate an enemy's bullet like a joke... hahaha."

"What, what are you laughing off! How many percent is your remaining Hybrid Count right now?"

"No, that... about 2%――I think."

"Two...!?"

Aine hit Kizuna's chest.

It was not with the power of the Heart Hybrid Gear, but with the power of Aine herself. The struck chest only gave a weak unreliable sound.

"You! Idiot, idiot, incompetent, fool, useless! Even though you are a weakling! Even though you are powerless! At least evade something like a mere bullet!"

She was hitting Kizuna's chest while crying.

"Why, for the sake of me who cannot fight anymore, you... did something like that-"

Kizuna gently held down the shoulders of Aine who was like that.

"Uu... hic, uu, u..."

Aine pressed her head onto Kizuna's chest, she stifled her voice and cried.

"Even though, I, cannot do anything... other than dying..."

Shining tears spilled down from Aine's eyes.

Kizuna gently embraced Aine's body.

"Hey... this place is really nostalgic."

"...?"

"That's right, this was the place where you and I met for the first time."

"...Eh?"

"Seven years ago, you arrived to this room lifted on a stretcher. At that time, I was helping mother... Hida Nayuta with her research."

With a look of realization, Aine looked at Kizuna.

"Then, the boy at that time... since that time, I didn't see him for the second time..."

"So you remember."

Kizuna smiled.

"You who had high aptitude for Heart Hybrid Gear arrived here, that made me get put into the trash can. At that time I was also thrown away by Kaa-san. She said, I'm already unneeded."

Aine was shocked and her eyes opened wide.

"That's why, I understand well how Chidorigafuchi feels. After all at that time, I too was the only owner of Heart Hybrid Gear in the world. That's why, when another fellow that had superior aptitude appeared, moreover, I got told that I'm already unneeded, that was really shocking."

Aine bit her lips hard.

"How you are rushing to death, I understand that too."

Aine slowly looked up at Kizuna's face.

Kizuna's face was indicating of a nostalgic memory, his expression was calm and looked awkward somehow.

"When I was told by Kaa-san that she didn't need me, I was thinking of dying for real. Up to that time I was always in the laboratory, I had never even gone to school. I didn't understand anything except the experiments. That was why, I who got driven out from the lab was nothing at all. Even though until that time Kaa-san and the research were my everything, I lost them all. All of my past until that time, I completely lost them all."

"Kizuna..."

Kizuna laughed embarrassedly.

"Haha, after that I went to Tokyo Float alone, and when I began to attend school that was just tragic. After all, I could not converse with other people properly at any rate. Really, just how similar is that with a certain someone you think."

Kizuna's hand touched Aine's cheek.

"But, at that point it's not a problem about the reason why you exist, or what kind of ability you have. It's a problem of how you are going to live from then on. We can always do over at any time, we can restart again at any time. That was what I learned at that time."

Kizuna recalled the words of the person who made him stand back up.

{Kizuna. The worth of human is not based on the height or depth of their ability. It's a problem of how they live.}

'――Really thank you, Nee-chan.'

"But... I don't understand, how I should live."

"I'll give you life counseling service then. At any rate, I'm an experienced person when it comes to standing back up from failure after all."

Kizuna proudly threw out his chest.

"Getting all puffed up like that from being a no-good man, really, what an idiot."

Aine suddenly smiled.

And then, she called off Zeros by herself and became dressed only in her pilot suit.

"Chidorigafuchi?"

"Kizuna... won't you, that, the Heart Hybrid... won't you do it with me I wonder?"

"But, you..."

"I'm, starting over again right? It's embarrassing but... if it's you, I..."

Kizuna's fingers scooped up her silver hair. It was soft like silk, a really pleasant sensation to the touch.

"I got it... Aine."

Kizuna too called off Eros.

"...Take, responsibility okay?"

Aine looked up at Kizuna with reproachful eyes.

Kizuna faltered a little, but he soon smiled wryly.

"Roger."

Kizuna's hand caressed Aine's body.

Gently, and affectionately. From the top until the bottom, he relished in it as if making his hand remember the shape of Aine's body.

"Haa... aa"

Heated breath spilled out from Aine's wet lips.

"Hyan!"

He caressed her side from the bottom of her waist. If it was himself he thought it would feel unbearably ticklish, but Aine knitted her eyebrows and raised a soundless voice from her mouth.

"A. aa... fu"

Her well trained abs were squeezed firmly, a faint vertical line following her navel was coming to the surface. His finger was sliding tracing that line.

"Kuu-... ya, yaan"

A lovely voice that he couldn't imagine coming from Aine was raised.

He poked at her bellybutton with his finger.

"Do, doing that, with, someone's body is... ha, ahn-"

When he lowered his hand until her abdomen, Kizuna's movement stopped suddenly.

If he kept moving down like this, the hurdle was a little high. Should he return back from here? However, where was he going if he returned?

Kizuna's gaze was absorbed into the two large swelling breasts which were rising undauntedly by gravity.

'Even if I touch them... I won't be scolded right?'

His gaze moved from the breasts to Aine's face.

Her face was staring at Kizuna as if in befuddlement. And then, inside those eyes, beautiful blue lights were swimming.

Kizuna decided in his heart.

With a degree that was unclear between touching and not touching, he confirmed the shape of the breasts with a weak loving caress.

"Aa... uu..."

Aine knitted her eyebrows as if enduring something.

"Does it hurt?"

He asked that question from being too anxious.

Aine faced Kizuna with unfocused eyes, then she smiled shyly.

"It, feels... good."

'――How cute.'

Inside Kizuna's eyes, pink lights were flashing.

Putting strength into his hand, he grasped Aine's breast.

"Kyauuaaaa!"

That instant, blue light surged out from Aine's body. The light entangled with the pink light that was emitted from Kizuna's body, becoming a single flow, it was enveloping the bodies of the two as if in caring of the two of them.

Inside the glittering light, they tasted an indescribable tranquil.

――Heart Hybrid.