Editing Masou Gakuen HxH:Volume 9 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 1===

“Then to celebrate the victory……cheers.”

Nayuta raised her glass smilingly.

It was at the highest floor of a high class hotel in Ataraxia, [Royal Ataraxia Hotel]. Inside the Chinese food restaurant that was among the lined up high class restaurants there, Kizuna and the others of the Heart Hybrid Gear squad and the Magic Knight of Vatlantis were gathering.

As expected from a hotel that was usually a purveyor for VIPs, it had a magnificent view of Ataraxia’s night scenery from the large window. However, Megafloat Japan that was usually visible was nowhere to be seen right now. When the sight was moved to inside the restaurant, the combination of Chinese outfits that made one recall the world of Hokuto and the modern design was really pleasing to the eyes. Even while proclaiming the high class perception, the atmosphere was mysteriously calming.

However, the gathered members were similarly making disheartened faces.

“Che……cheers.”

Inside the strange atmosphere that was drifting, whispering voices of cheers with timing really late and that didn’t match with Nayuta’s rally were raised.

Certainly, they had defeated one of the Deus ex Machina, Hokuto and had recovered a part of the world’s configuration information. that was a great achievement.

On the large round table in front of their eyes, high class Chinese food were lined up in an astonishing amount. Starting from Peking duck, there was also whole shark fin, crab soup with swallow nest, dried abalone steak, Ise prawn, foie gras, sea urchin and so on, high class ingredients were used generously. Cooking that one usually couldn’t witness were being lined up.

There were also dishes that they had familiarity with, like mapo tofu or steamed meat dumplings, gyoza, xiaolongpao, chop suey, pepper steak, fried rice and so on, but even those were somewhat different from what they could eat at the school cafeteria. Most likely their ingredients, the effort for seasoning and the skill to make them were not merely somewhat different, but at another level entirely.

The aroma of those dishes were mercilessly stimulating the appetite of everyone in attendance. However――,

Right now wasn’t the time or situation to celebrate so carefree like this, wasn’t it?

Which reminded him, that until now, he had never thought about it but, just from where were these high class ingredients coming from?

Such questions kept bothering the minds of the participants here.

“Hmm, what’s the matter? Even though we finally manage to defeat a machine god and recover half of Lemuria after a great pain……aah, the people of Vatlantis still haven’t recovered their own world’s data, so because of that you all cannot get in the mood for celebration, is that it?”

“……That’s not it.”

Hyakurath who was wearing Ataraxia’s uniform with a napkin held between her collar was forming a wrinkle between her eyebrows.

There were two large round tables. In one table was Sylvia, at her left was Kei, Reiri, Nayuta, then Kizuna, Himekawa, in addition was Vatlantis’s Hyakurath, Mercuria, Valdy and Ragrus, they were sitting in that order.

At the other table were Masters’ Scarlet, Henrietta, Clementine, Sharon, and Leila. Also Gertrude who obtained permission for going out was participating in a wheelchair.

“My, then is it the food? For the celebration of defeating Hokuto, isn’t Chinese food the most fitting for this occasion?”

As though to say that she couldn’t hold back anymore, Reiri hit the table.

“Stop joking around! Just when I thought what were you planning to gather everyone like this. You are just making fun of us!”

“I’m not making fun of everyone or anything. I only want to give appreciation for everyone’s hard work. And then I’m thinking that with this everyone’s willpower can be maintained for the battle we will be heading for after this. Also, for those who are still unable to return home from the battlefront too, I prepared cooking with good nourishment. With the feeling of gratitude towards everyone who had worked hard, I arranged this place, but……is this a bother?”

“Uu……”

What she was saying was extremely proper. There was no ground to complain where they could only express gratitude.

But that was the story for a normal person.

The one they were talking with, was that Hida Nayuta.

No matter how, they couldn’t possibly honestly accept this.

Himekawa also knitted her eyebrows and stared fixedly at the food.

“There is nothing inserted in this food right……?”

That worry wasn’t too excessive, Kizuna thought that.

{There is no need to worry on that point. These dishes are undoubtedly created in the kitchen of this restaurant. There is no strange point at all, starting from the ingredients, the cooking, until the food that was put on the table.}

Kei typed on her portable keyboard and opened a window in front of the face. Together with the text Kei was typing, the image of the transportation of the ingredients and the cooking in the kitchen, and then the image of monitoring camera inside the restaurant were displayed one after another.

{By the way the ingredients are somehow delivered to the market each morning. Tracking from where it was sent to the market is impossible. However, the confirmation of the safety of the ingredients has been finished.}

“For some reason, it’s really suspicious……”

Towards the frowning Kizuna, Nayuta put her fan covering her mouth and raised a chuckle.

“Fufufu, so you are scared. If it is ingredients that originally existed in Ataraxia, then it’s possible to reproduce it. Saying it in reverse, ingredients that didn’t exist when the data of this Ataraxia was collected is impossible to be obtained though.”

“……For example what?”

“Let’s see……something like grasshoppers or frogs.”

Kizuna replied with a disgusted face.

“That’s unneeded. But――ah”

When he noticed, Scarlet and the others were beginning to eat.

“Hee, isn’t this really delicious, this is shark fin you say? The texture is interesting. Isn’t it, Henrietta?”

“I think so. Putting together shark fin and ham is also delicious.”

Clementine was sampling every single kind of xialongpao.

“This is tasty! Inside it there are sea urchins or shrimp inserted, yeah! The spring roll too, it has a lot inserted in it!”

Sharon was putting crab soup of swallow nest mechanically into her mouth.

“It’s said that swallow nest, is good for beauty……fufu, fufufufu, I’ll eat as much as I like.”

Leila was checking the menu of the hotel’s restaurant in her smartphone while reaching out her hand to the cooking with a difficult expression.

“In what way I can eat the expensive one with the most effectiveness……as expected, abalone is 30,000 yen! No, that highest grade shark fin has unit price of 40,000 yen! Kuh! What’s with this market value! Eei, I’ll call them directly!”

While eating Chinese ham and spare rib, beef fillet meat black pepper stir fry, Scarlet noticed Gertrude who wasn’t moving at all.

“Hey―, you aren’t eating? It’s delicious you know? Or rather, it’s a loss if you don’t eat.”

Gertrude that was staring fixedly at the table with resentful eyes howled.

“You are noisy asshole! I’m still in the middle of hospitalization, there is this thing called eating restriction! Just why did you bring me here!”

“Ah, is that so. Sorry. Well, I thought that it would be pitiful if you are the only one left behind that’s why.”

“Don’t you asshole talk like that while stuffing your cheek with food-! I cannot see any pity in you for me at all like that-!”

Gertrude yelled with teary eyes. Sharon tilted her head with a slightly pitying expression.

“But……at the very least, if you can taste the place’s atmosphere……you will have fun?”

“It’s nothing at all except being tortured you asshole-!”<ref>Seems like the anime attached asshole in Gertrude’s speech, so I’ll also use that here for Gertrude’s characteristic way of talking.</ref>

Leila was typing on her calculator while smiling nihilistically.

“This place is a battlefield! My bad but there is no free time to take care of other people! We have never gone anywhere but fast food joints, school cafeterias, or convenience stores. A chance to eat this kind of celebrity food will never come again!”

“Eating celebrity food that is pointlessly expensive like that is just degradation! Doing something like mimicking those rich people, you don’t have any pride of the commoner at all you asshole!”

No matter what Gertrude said, Leila’s will wasn’t shaken in the slightest.

“The motto of the commoner, is to eat free food without mercy! You won’t be able to eat this kind of high class food if not with other people’s money! Just how much money you think is needed so that you can eat this……fufufu”

The food on Masters’ table were decreasing in the blink of an eye. Kizuna could only smile wryly.

“Even if the food is poisoned, it’s already too late isn’t it……let’s eat too.”

Kizuna reached out his hand towards the mapo tofu in front of his eyes.

“!? Wait Kizuna. I’ll taste for poison first.”

The moment Reiri said that, she rotated the part of the round table that was a level higher. The tofu that was dyed with the redness of chili oil and the black of minced meat finally arrived in front of Reiri’s eyes. Immediately the fragrance of capsicum, black pepper, and Japanese paper stimulated her nasal cavity.

“Fufufu, but perhaps that deep vigilance is advantageous in battle. Here, Reiri.”

Nayuta scooped up white rice into a bowl and gave it to Reiri. Reiri was staring at that bowl with a face as though she was looking at a monster that sprang out from the abyss.

“……What are you doing?”

Nayuta tilted her head in puzzlement at Reiri who was having cold sweat.

“What a strange child. I’m handing over rice to you see? Are you feeling a little nostalgic?”

“……No. Since I was born, not to mention handing over rice to me which you had never done even once, in the first place I don’t have even a single recollection of you cooking.”

“Is that so?”

After Nayuta made a slightly puzzled face. She put the rice bowl in front of Reiri. And then she prepared the next bowl and served white rice again.

Reiri was having cold sweat while glaring at the bowl put before her eyes with a grim face.

Hyakurath who was sitting beside Himekawa who was sitting beside Kizuna, was holding chopsticks while biting her lips with a troubled feeling.

“Excuse me, Himekawa-san. This thing called xiaolongpao, what is the correct way of eating it?”

“Is this your first time eating this Hyakurath-san? Err let’s see, first take it using your spoon, then break the skin and let out the meat juice inside, put sauce and black pepper……”

“Oi, Hyakurath. Why did you ask Himekawa? How about asking me first.”

Mercuria murmured with a dissatisfied face. However, Hyakurath answered nonchalantly.

“You don’t know anyway Mercuria.”

“Wha-! It’s not about that. Go to me first before Himekawa.”

“Himekawa-san is different than Mercuria, she possesses common sense, intelligence, and also a sense of duty, she is a really diligent person. Rather than someone with bad behavior like you, she is far more reliable.”

Himekawa could only laugh dryly at the exchange of the two. When her gaze was swimming around looking for help, her eyes suddenly met Kizuna’s.

“Hayuru is really popular.”

[[Image:Masou Gakuen HxH V09 BW 04.png|thumb]]

“Can someone like you really say that……”

She looked up at Kizuna with moist eyes.

“Captain―, is it okay if Sylvia rotates the table desu?”

Sylvia who was sitting at the opposite side was waving her hand. After Kizuna nodded, he rotated the table. In the middle Sylvia took after him and brought the Peking duck in front of herself.

“Is, is that……the Peking duck?”

Ragrus who was sitting beside Sylvia stared doubtfully at the duck meat with thinly sliced skin.

“Somehow……it looks, mostly like skin though.”

“This is that kind of food desu. You eat it by wrapping onion and cucumber together around it desu. It’s delicious desu!”

And then Valdy that was beside Ragrus, she was also not touching the food like Gertrude though because of a different reason. Ahead at the direction where she was staring fixedly was Reiri. If she averted her eyes even for an instant, in that opening Reiri might be attacked. Thinking that, Valdy didn’t let her eyes move from Reiri even for a moment. That Reiri wasn’t touching the rice that was served in the bowl, she was carrying a steamed dumpling into her mouth while murmuring towards no one.

“Good grief……even though Oldium and Golden Dragon’s whereabouts are unknown right now. This carefree gathering is just……”

Nayuta stared at Reiri as though she noticed sharply.

“If it’s their location then I know it you know.”

“――What?”

“Oldium and Golden Dragon are applied with my remodeling, I shared a part of my body with them. And so, I understand in which world they are in.”

“Wh……why, didn’t you say that sooner!?”

Reiri hit the table and stood up vigorously.

The two ships other than the battleship Ataraxia who departed on a journey to search for the Deus ex Machina, Oldium that was boarded by the Vatlantis Empire’s members, and the Golden Dragon that was boarded by the alliance of Izgard and Baldein. Nayuta knew the whereabouts of those two ships. That truth also shocked Kizuna.

“That’s right! Then, we have to head there immediately!”

However, Nayuta was scooping apricot pudding while replying in a calm state.

“Just wait. Even if you rush, there will be nothing good coming out from it.”

Hyakurath also raised a condemning voice.

“But, even while we are doing this, Grace-san and student council president……no, Grace-sama and Zelcyone-sama, also……Gravel-san too.”

Everyone didn’t hide their irritated feeling and waited for Nayuta’s reply.

“I understand your feelings of wanting to hurry. But even the battleship Ataraxia is largely damaged because of the emergency landing in Hokuto’s world and the escape from the world’s crumbling. A little more time is necessary until it is repaired. Until then, please set aside this time for resting.”

Even if he was told that, Kizuna couldn’t calm down. The other two ships were in a similar situation as them, they were swallowed by a space-time tsunami and should be landing on an unknown world somewhere. Right now, he couldn’t even imagine what kind of situation those girls were in. Perhaps they arrived at a terrifyingly dangerous world, perhaps they had fallen into a terrible danger.

They themselves unexpectedly arrived at machine god Hokuto’s world and narrowly obtained victory. That was because he and Hayuru who had finished the Core’s reinstall and also Nayuta were there. However, the other two ships beside Ataraxia were――,

“It’s fine you know.”

Nayuta smiled thinly.

“In those two ships, there are Magic Knights that had done Core’s reinstall too isn’t it?”

“!?”

Himekawa didn’t miss that conversation.

She didn’t know that there was anybody else that had done Core’s reinstall. Together with a light shock, she felt desolateness that it wasn’t just her. And then, she became fiercely concerned who were the ones who had the reinstall done on them.

Kizuna was completely ignorant of what was happening inside Himekawa’s heart. He was anxious about the safety of the crews of the Oldium and the Golden Dragon and dropped his gaze on the table.

Nayuta who was sitting beside him looked up at Kizuna as though she had just remembered something.

“――By the way, Kizuna.”

Was there any other information!? Kizuna turned to Nayuta vigorously thinking that. Kizuna’s desperate expression was met by Nayuta’s lax smile.

“Do you want seconds?”