Editing Masou Gakuen HxH:Volume 3 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 2===

After Kizuna exited the lab, he returned to the dormitory with the limousine that Reiri arranged for him.

He climbed until the fifth floor exclusive for Amaterasu using elevator, walked the corridor and returned to his own room. In the middle of the way, his legs stopped in front of a door.

“Aine……”

Her examination should have finished even before him and she returned first to the dormitory. Kizuna reached out his hand to knock at the door. Why was the enemy aiming for Aine? Did Aine know something about it herself?

He wanted to know that. However, even if he asked her it was highly unlikely that she could answer him.

Even while thinking that, Kizuna knocked on the door.

“Aine, you there?”

After a while, a voice returned from the door.

“Kizuna? What’s the matter? If it’s newspaper, I don’t need it though.”

“Just when do you think I became a newspaper salesman!”

“That’s why, I don’t need anything like detergent.”

“I’m not planning to offer you that! Rather than that, I’ve got something I want to ask you a bit.”

The door opened.

“What is it?”

“It’s about the enemy we fought yesterday, can you give me a little time?”

“……Fine then. Enter.”

Aine was a little hesitating, but she opened the door widely and invited Kizuna in.

The make-up of the room was basically the same like Kizuna’s room. However,

“That’s a lot of books.”

Novels, manga, photo albums, traveling guides and so on, books from every genre were piled up, forming towers. Those towers of books were soaring over the surroundings. Not only books, there were also large amounts of disks that recorded images piling up.

It was a great difference with the room Aine used when she was a child in Nayuta Lab.

“Is all of this, data? For searching for clues of the memory you recalled?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s a little scattered here, I’m sorry.”

‘You call this a little?’

There was almost no space for his foot to step, he couldn’t even walk straight. He moved until the sofa in front of the television with trouble, but there were also books put there. Aine moved the books on the sofa to the table and built a new tower.

“Please, sit.”

He sat on the sofa.

“Aa―……err. How’s it going with your search? Have you found some kind of clue, like the town or the country where you were?”

“I found nothing at all.”

“Is that so……then, things that aroused your interests, or a knowledge that you knew even before reading the book, is there anything like that?”

“There is also nothing really like that. But, thanks to the increase of my knowledge from reading and watching videos, I was able to mostly understand, that all over the world there are many fun things outside of fighting.”

“That’s great.”

Kizuna reflexively smiled. Looking at that smile, the beating of Aine’s heart became faster. She turned her back to him so that her faintly colored cheek could be seen.

“The, then, what’s the matter? You said you want to talk about the enemy from yesterday.”

“Aah, about that……that woman Gravel, her objective seems to be Aine right? That’s why, I’m thinking if Aine might know something about it.”

Aine recalled about her exchange with Gravel, and also with Aldea.

{I want to ask one thing. Do you――remember your time as a child?}

{Yes, yes, the current you doesn’t get the meaning of what I’m talking about isn’t it! Aah, but there is no need to worry! Yes, leave everything to me! I will save you for sure!}

‘――Just what are they saying?’

“……Nothing. I’m the one who wants to ask them instead.”

“Is there no clue or something inside the memory you recalled?”

Aine twitched before her body trembled.

“Aine?”

While Kizuna was watching Aine, he recalled a simple question.

‘――Which reminds me, where did Aine come from?’

Aine was discovered in Chidorigafuchi at Japan mainland when she was a child.

In the end, her family couldn’t be found and they couldn’t understand, where did she come from and what was she doing before she lost her memory.

Aine faced Kizuna with a face that looked cornered.

“Kizuna…..you see, each time I did Climax Hybrid, things that I recall……no, things that I think is my memory, when I look at them again, it makes me think, this is actually not a memory isn’t it, something like that.”

“Eh? That’s, what do you mean?”

“The memories that I remembered, all of them look unreal……the thing that I remembered first, a beautiful nature and a splendid city, and the large mechanical clock, they are still normal. I thought that they might be somewhere in Europe. But, the things that I remembered from the Climax Hybrid before this, a chalk white castle built on top of a waterfall, eerie black city and black castle. A person that looked like a queen from a movie, riding on a gigantic stone statue and palanquin while waving her hand. And then the figures of so many people covering the surface kneeling.”

“That’s……certainly, that doesn’t seem like your personal experience.”

“Right? On the contrary, it felt like I was watching a movie. It’s not something about myself, I thought that perhaps it might be just a book I read as a child, or a movie that I had seen. That’s why……”

“That’s why?”

“Even if I do Climax Hybrid, I think that I still might not be able to understand who I am. Rather, perhaps it’s better to not do it anymore……”

“What did you say!?”

Those words were something he never expected to hear from Aine, who desired so much for a powerful long range weapon.

No, putting aside Aine’s thinking, he also had his own circumstances. From now on too, powerful enemies like Gravel might appear again. At that time, if Aine’s Corruption Armament became unusable, it would be a great loss for their battle strength.

“Not just that……recently, even Heart Hybrid felt strange somehow.”

“Strange you say, strange how?”

“The time when we did Heart Hybrid in the lab before this too, I felt like……like I’m going to remember something. It was like a haze and not really clear but, that, felt like something that I must not remember, that was how it felt. That’s why……”

With a gaze as if begging him for forgiveness, Aine looked up at Kizuna.

‘No……that’s bad.’

If she didn’t do Heart Hybrid, he couldn’t expect her Hybrid Count to recover.

And then, if her Hyrbid Count became zero, Aine would die.

“Wait――please wait, Aine. That, even memory like that is also one kind of a clue isn’t it? Certainly, you don’t understand if it’s about yourself or not, perhaps it was only about a movie scene. But, basically if we understand what kind of movie it is, there will be something more we can understand from that. The thing that you don’t want to remember, perhaps it’s something like a horror movie……by any chance, perhaps it’s something like a scary memory from your time as a kid?”

“Perhaps that’s so but……I, I already――”

‘――already don’t want to do Heart Hybrid anymore.’

Those words, were going to come out from her mouth even now.

“Please, Aine. From here on the fighting will become even fiercer. At that time, Heart Hybrid and Climax Hybrid will become powerful weapons. If we wait for natural recovery, it’s not impossible, but continuing to fight the enemy will be really hard.”

“That’s, I understand that. But……ah”

Kizuna embraced Aine’s body. Her body was slightly trembling.

“Are you scared, Aine?”

“Not particularly……I’m not scared or anything……”

Aine’s hand circled on Kizuna’s back. She rubbed her face on Kizuna’s chest.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

‘――I’m not scared anymore.’

“Listen to me Aine. Certainly if you remember a memory that is something like an unknown dream, you will become anxious, I understand that. But, no matter what kind of memory it is, because that past exist that Aine is here right now. No matter what kind of past you remember after this far, Aine is Aine, nothing will change don’t you think?”

Kizuna gently separated from Aine, then he gazed at her red eyes.

The next moment, violent embarrassment rose to their faces. The two of them had faces that were so red, to the degree that steam might come out from there.

‘Shit, just how can this be even more embarrassing than Heart Hybrid!’

“The, then, I’ll go already. Aah, that’s right! About what we talked just now, those bunches’ aim is the Core of Heart Hybrid Gear, Aldea also said that. Surely they came searching just for Zeros, not for you, perhaps.”

“I, I guess so……yes! That’s right, surely that’s how it is!”

Kizuna exited from the room after making to collapse around two towers of books.

Inside the room that had turned quiet, Aine released a deep sigh.

She headed to the bedroom with floating steps, then she laid down on the bed heavily.

‘――Kizuna said those things but, those things that came back to mind when doing Climax Hybrid, they are certainly, feels like a fragment of my memory. There is no basis to that. But, that’s how it feels.

But, they are not something that I wished for.

That’s why, I must not do any more Climax Hybrid.

Inside me, that kind of warning is ringing loudly.

But.’

Aine recalled, Kizuna’s arms that were embracing her, the sensation of the chest he pressed her cheek at, she traced the place where Kizuna touched with her finger.

‘If Kizuna demanded it from me, I will――.’

Before long, sleep invited Aine, and she departed to the world of dreams.

And then, she whispered while moving towards the dream.

“The goddess dance……nothingness, and death, and emperor……and then……to eternity.”