Editing Masou Gakuen HxH:Volume 10 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 1===

Hida Reiri was alone in the ship’s Captain’s Room facing her desk.

Formal office procedures were meaningless in this kind of situation, but even so there were minimum confirmations and problem processing that needed to be done. Her eyes went through the reports and written reports from each post and processed them.

Fortunately everything was digitalized, so there wasn’t a mountain of paper piling up. Thanks to that mentally it was somewhat easier, but it didn’t mean that the work amount decreased.

「Ha―i, Reiri-chan♪ Thank you very much for your hard work. Here is a snack for you―」

A happy-go-lucky voice echoed inside the quiet room. Reiri suddenly wanted to snap the pen she was holding.

「……No one asked for that.」

Reiri glared and responded with a voice that was filled not by thorns anymore, but by spears. Hida Nayuta didn’t even pay that any attention and put the tray she was carrying on Reiri’s desk. On top of the tray there were roasted green tea and Nanbu rice cracker. Nayuta showed a motherly smile with the appearance of a little girl, wearing strange clothing of tights on her lower body and a furisode on the top.

「You liked this didn’t you? You have astringent preferences since you were a child.」

Reiri scowled and grasped the teacup in irritation. She put her lips on the teacup and slurped the hot tea along with breathing in air. The inside of her dry mouth was moistened and she felt something warm was flowing in from her throat through to her chest. After that a sigh came out naturally from her mouth.

Her hand reached towards the Nanbu rice cracker and she crunched on it with an angered expression. Nayuta was looking at Reiri’s state that was like that with a puzzled face.

「……What?」

「No, this is the first time, you ate something that I brought……」

Reiri’s hand that was carrying the half-eaten rice cracker to her mouth stopped. Reiri made a shocked expression as though she only noticed this late.

She stared fixedly at her hand that was holding the rice cracker.

――I thought that this person doesn’t know my preferences. However, there is no way she doesn’t know I guess.

As though to swallow back the complicated feeling emerging in her heart, Reiri put the remaining Nanbu rice cracker into her mouth and crunched it. And then she gulped down the tea and faced the monitor screen once more.

「It’s not the food that is at fault after all.」

「Fufu……you’re right.」

Nayuta saw that figure of her daughter and squinted her eyes in a smile.

「Then do your best.」

「There is no need for you to tell me that.」

「Ah, but your body will break down if you work too hard. You were stubborn since in the past. You have a habit that tends to make pointless effort because you work too hard.」

Reiri couldn’t bear it anymore and hit the desk.

「It’s fine already so get out! I’m busy!」

「Yes yes. Okaa-san will get out now.」

Nayuta turned her back with a slightly pouting face. And then her foot was stepping forward towards the door, but she didn’t move from that spot.

Reiri frowned staring at that back.

「Is there still something else?」

「Reiri……」

That voice completely changed into something coldly flat. Reiri spontaneously stood up with a bad premonition.

「What’s wrong, did something happen?」

Nayuta turned around and spoke with a cold expression.

「Ataraxia fell into Thanatos’s hands.」

「What did you say!?」

Reiri stood up so forcefully that the chair almost fell down, and then she walked away from the desk toward Nayuta’s side.

「……Is that certain?」

Ataraxia was something Nayuta restored using the data she stole when the Deus ex Machina were recovering the whole data. Ataraxia was something like a part of Nayuta’s body, so she could sense if something unusual happened.

「What I felt was that Ataraxia was moved far away from the space it was originally at. However, something like this is only possible to be done by a machine god. That means――」

「You are saying, that Ataraxia was stolen by Thanatos.」

Reiri gritted her teeth audibly.

「Calm down Reiri.」

Nayuta took out a fan from her chest area with a cool face, and she spread it.

「Try to think further. What we have obtained from this matter.」

「What?」

「Ataraxia was stolen, but we understand where it was taken to. In other words, what is the meaning of that?」

Reiri frowned and then she spoke in a whisper.

「The location of Thanatos, became exposed.」

Nayuta closed her fan with a snap.

「Correct♪」

And then she smiled cheerfully.