Editing Masou Gakuen HxH:Volume 5 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 2===

About two weeks had passed since the Tokyo recapturing operation. Currently Ataraxia, Megafloat Japan, and West USA were stopping in the Pacific Ocean far distanced from Tokyo.

Losing Amaterasu and Masters all at once made them to be at a loss. They really had nothing that could be done and now they could only drift in the ocean. They were already preferred giving up taking back their countries or anything and thought that maybe it would be better to just live their whole life above the sea. Among the citizens, such atmosphere was beginning to hang in the air. Above all, losing Amaterasu and Masters which were their only way to resist the AU was decisive. Their life and death was unknown, but the viewpoint of despair was gaining strength.

――It was at such a time.

“Kizuna came back you said!?”

Reiri’s color changed and rushed into the lab’s intensive treatment room.

{He is sleeping on the bed over there.}

Even before she could read Kei’s floating window, she discovered the figure of her little brother lying on the bed. Tears were immediately overflowing from Reiri’s eyes.

“Kizuna-……!”

Reiri jumped and embraced the sleeping Kizuna.

The title of commander and dignity were all irrelevant. Without any shame and honor, she expressed her heart and emotion straight.

She had already given up. She thought that perhaps he was dead. She had already understood that he was her irreplaceable important family. But, the feeling of loss and shock when she lost him was far bigger than she could even imagine.

“You……you did well coming back……”

She hugged Kizuna and rubbed her cheek on him. The tears were touched on the cheek, wetting Kizuna’s face. Tears and body temperature were transmitted to Kizuna. Kizuna opened his eyes to that warmth.

“Nee……chan?”

Returning to her senses with a ‘hah’, Reiri separated their bodies in panic. And then she turned her back to Kizuna and nonchalantly wiped her tears.

“Kizuna-……no, sorry. I woke you up. Just sleep like that.”

“No, I’m glad you woke me up. We have to, think of a countermeasure soon.”

Reiri sharply yelled at Kizuna who tried to get out from the bed.

“It’s fine already, just sleep! Kei, what about Kizuna’s diagnosis? Has his examination finished?”

The letters that Kei typed were displayed on the floating window like a stream.

{It’s roughly finished. There are bruises and lacerations on the whole body, but there is nothing serious that will affect life. However, the Hybrid Count is endlessly near zero.}

Kizuna bore the pain and raised his upper body while distorting his face. He raised an embarrassed wry smile at Reiri who was looking at him worriedly.

“On top of getting into a scuffle, I also came out in Britain. As expected I feel a little tired from all that. Well, it’s impossible for me to fight without Hybrid Count, but I’m fine if it’s just walking.”

After crawling out from the bed, Kizuna stood up even while staggering. He even did calisthenics practice in order to confirm his body movement.

{Britain? Why did you come out in that kind of place?}

“Aah, I flew into the Entrance that was the nearest of the enemy’s……Vatlantis’s capital, but it was connected to Britain’s London. From there I came here going halfway around the earth……It saved me that the Climax Hybrid with Gravel’s Zoros had high efficiency.”

“What?”

{Eh?}

“Nn?”

Reiri and Kei were making a face that seemed to say ‘What are you saying?’, but Kizuna didn’t understand the meaning of their expression and tilted his head.

“What were you doing with the enemy……no, I’ll listen to your story slowly, so first return to the bed. We cannot grasp at all what happened since in the middle of the Tokyo recapture operation. After you were almost killed by the enemy’s general, suddenly all communication was cut off, and we became unable to understand the situation in Tokyo. Just what in the world happened?”

The figure of Aine releasing Code Breaker passed through Kizuna’s brain. He reflexively clenched his fist.

“Aah……I’ll tell you, everything.”

And then Kizuna spoke of the unknown happening at the Tokyo recapture operation. While in the middle Kei and Reiri interjected with some questions, it easily took three hours until he finished the whole story.

Leaning her body on the chair of the treatment room, Reiri brushed up her long black hair.

“……If Kizuna wasn’t watching a dream, then this is a really surprising fact.”

It was her honest impression after finished listening to the story.

“Aine has already completely become the emperor of Vatlantis……that’s what you mean?”

“No……I don’t know.”

“However, she tried to win you over, and when she failed the next day you were thrown into a death match right? If that’s the――”

“Wrong! No……I think, that’s wrong.”

Putting his hand on his forehead, Kizuna recalled the face and voice of Aine at the scene of that time.

Aine said to him that she wanted to consult him. She was really troubled and her face looked like she wanted to cry. ‘Just why did I say such things that spurned her over?

Aah, shit! I hate just how petty my caliber is.

But, Aine came to the Colosseum. If she came then why didn’t she try to save me? By any chance, she was really trying to have me executed……no, that’s stupid!’

Kizuna scratched off his hair.

‘――Aine.

Aine, have you really become an enemy?’

“……It’s fine already, you are tired right? Rest for now.”

Reiri forcefully pushed down Kizuna’s body on the bed. And then she closed his eyes overbearingly.

“I want to meet her one more time……meet her, and talk……”

“Kizuna?”

When he lied down, Kizuna immediately began to have sleeper’s breath.

Reiri sighed to reassure herself and fixed the blanket covering Kizuna.

“Kei, you listen?”

Kei nodded to that voice and exited the room after Reiri.

The two of them headed to the central control room of the lab. As a matter of fact, it had become Kei’s personal room where there was no one inside, it was convenient for a discussion of the countermeasure with just the two of them.

Entering the room, Reiri suddenly began to talk after the door was locked.

“What do you think?”

Kei separated from her keyboard and spoke not with text on a monitor but with her own voice.

“I examined him but……there was no abnormality in Kizuna. He is sane, by no means he was seeing an illusion.”

It was a feeble voice, like a delicate work of candy floss. There was no one who had heard this raw voice of Kei other than Reiri. Her vocal cords weren’t used except at the time when there were just the two of them together.

“If it’s really true……then that means the Entrance that is the nearest to the capital of the AU is in London. Then, we should not focus on Tokyo, but it’s better to assault them directly from London’s Entrance.”

“But, Re-ri. In the present, our combat strength consists only of Kizuna and Gertrude whose wound isn’t healed yet you know? Even Gertrude, with her current wounded state, it’s impossible for her to do Climax Hybrid with Kizuna……maybe.”

“What about the development of the new weapon for use against magic weapons?”

Kei dropped her gaze while looking troubled.

“Everyone in research department is also doing their best……they had tested several in the actual combat at Tokyo recapture operation, so they want the test feedback from Kizuna.”

Reiri nodded quietly. She went until the cooler that was in the corner of the room and opened its door, she then took out a cold beer bottle from inside. She pulled the cork and gulped the content in one go. The carbonic acid stimulated the inside of her mouth. The cold liquid wetted her throat and cooled the inside of her body.

She separated the bottle from her mouth and Reiri stared at empty air with a grim face.

‘――That woman. What is Professor Nayuta thinking?’

For Reiri, she felt shocked about the information of AU, but she also felt eerie that she didn’t know what Professor Nayuta was thinking about.

“……But, we won’t progress if we only keep being cautious. Leave behind Megafloat Japan and West USA here, only Ataraxia will head to Britain.”

“But……our combat strength is overwhelmingly lacking. We only have two Heart Hybrid Gears, even if we entered the Entrance of London……”

Kei was staring at Reiri with forlorn eyes.

“We are going to try coming into contact with the other megafloats while heading to London. We are heading to Europe while collecting battle strength. Even if for example we don’t find any megafloat……there should be Europe’s megafloat at the Atlantic Ocean.”

“Tha……that’s, right.”

Kei nodded several times with a smile that didn’t seem confident.

Both of them didn’t speak of the possibility that the megafloats of the other countries might be already sunk down.