Editing Masou Gakuen HxH:Volume 8 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 1===

One of the patient rooms in Nayuta Lab. The door of that room quietly opened. Kizuna peeked at the situation inside the room secretly, where there was a black haired girl lying down on the bed. Her usually tied hair was let free and her hair that was longer than her shoulders was spreading on the pillow. Several cables and tubes were connected from under her blanket into the medical device beside her pillow. Her back figure that had a different atmosphere than usual made Kizuna feel a slight tension.

Kizuna was going to put the fruit basket he brought at her bedside but his hands stopped. There was the visiting presents piled up there by the previous guest, there was no place for him to put his.

“You are famous huh.”

Kizuna made a faint smile.

“……Ah, boss Kizuna.”

Gertrude Baird slightly opened her eyes and looked up at Kizuna.

“My bad. I woke you up.”

Stopping Gertrude from rising up her body, Kizuna put his visiting present at the empty space by the window. He could see the panoramic view of Ataraxia from the window, it was a room with a really good view. However, what could be seen from there was the scar left by Hokuto, a really painful scenery.

The configuration information of the world taken back by Nayuta. Ataraxia that was reconstructed from there with great pain now became a tragic figure just from looking. A third of the outer wall surrounding Ataraxia had collapsed, half of the urban area and industrial area was changed into scorched earth. The facilities below third floor underground were safe, but there was no doubt that they received a really serious blow. The current Gertrude who couldn’t wake up from the bed couldn’t see that scenery, in that respect she was being fortunate instead.

“You intentionally came here to see me? Wai―t, boss yourself, has your injury gotten better already?”

“Yeah. I’m mostly ok now. The ban for meeting Gertrude was lifted up today, so I came to visit but……”

Kizuna sat down at the circle chair at the bedside.

“Looks like there was a guest before me.”

He looked up at the piled up boxes of fruits and snacks. Books, games, television, audio, AV device, model gun and electric airsoft gun, even toy drones and robots were also there. It was completely puzzling that there were even a bicycle and a surfboard, but perhaps they had the meaning of telling her to quickly get healthy so she could play them.

Staring at the mountain of presents, Gertrude shrugged her shoulders.

“Various people came by in turns, I cannot have any peace at all.”

“Those guys are bad huh.”

Kizuna floated a wry smile.

“But Masters are all hospitalized right? Who came here then?”

“The fellows from my class came. Also boss’s sister also came you know. Even though she is busy, she is really driven by a strong sense of duty. Besides……Gravel also came.”

The end of Gertrude’s sentence sounded quieter from a little shyness.

He had come visiting Gravel several times in her hospitalization. It was fortunate that her injuries weren’t as serious as they thought. Both he and Gravel were discharged from hospital almost at the same timing, since then, for some reason, there were also a lot of chances to meet.

Currently there was only Kizuna and Gravel who were discharged from hospital. Next were Himekawa who in the first place was only lightly injured and Zelsione who didn’t participate in the battle. The members other than them were still hospitalized without change although the degree of their injuries were different.

“……Nevertheless, your luck was bad. You are the one with the heaviest injuries.”

“Good grief really. Like this, don’t I look like I’m always out of the stage from injury all year round. There is nothing more disagreeable than this.”

“No, you received that attack, it’s only natural you got like this. Rather, the other Masters who only got light injuries, isn’t it better to call them just getting very lucky?”

“I’m calling that as strong evil luck instead.”

The other members of Masters who received the same attack were also in the middle of treatment at the same hospital. However, the only one seriously injured was Gertrude, the other members would be able to return to the battlefront relatively quickly.

Gertrude had bad luck, on top of receiving a direct attack, she was struck into the buildings of Ataraxia several times. As a result, she bore serious injuries that made her get lost in the border of life and death while in ICU.

“Get well quickly, okay? When Masters are not here, it feels like we are lacking the mood makers after all.”

“The other girls are going to get out soon, so I’ll leave it to them.”

Gertrude looked up at the ceiling with eyes that looked lonely.

“Boss Kizuna……those machine gods, you are really going to pick a fight with them?”

“Yeah……but their strength is not something half-assed. There is a need for us to obtain even stronger power. We are going to try all the ways we can take and find the method to oppose the Deus ex Machina.”

“Is that so……in that case, I’m going to become unneeded anymore am I……”

She said that with a self-depreciating tone.

“Just what are you saying. There is no way――”

“Even the Ros-series is no match against them, can someone like me be useful, I don’t understand that anymore.”

“……”

Certainly, in a certain aspect, that was a fact. The Deus ex Machina surpassed human knowledge, they were opponents with power that was really like a god. If their opponents were just magic weapons like until now, then there were places where she could be greatly contributing to by matching the fighting strength. That was because before this the enemies were made up from various kinds of weapons, where there were the strong enemies and the weak enemies.

But――,

Kizuna put his hand on Gertrude’s head and stroked her hair messily.

“Wha, what are you doing! Just stop it!”

Kizuna obediently lifted his hand.

“Just what are you saying. This kind of situation is something we are used to right?”

Gertrude pouted her mouth.

“That’s, boss is saying about how I got injured before that I need to withdraw from the battle line isn’t it. That way of talking is just too――”

“Even when we fought Vatlantis, it’s the same like this. In that absolutely disadvantaged situation, we didn’t even have any way of fighting where we could fight properly. Even so, didn’t you and I manage it somehow until this point.”

“……”

Gertrude completely fell silent. Kizuna stood up and turned his back to her before going to the exit. He opened the door and stood stock still just before he exited the sickroom. And then, he turned around and raised his thumb at Gertrude.

“I’ll wait for you, partner.”

The door closed and Gertrude became alone. She directed her head to the side and stared at the present Kizuna put there. While she was staring at that, tears were blurring her eyes. And then at the same time, there was something welling up from the bottom of her heart.

“Really……what a troublesome person.”

A smile floated on her lips.

“I’m going there soon. When boss is in a pinch, without me he won’t be able to do anything after all.”