3 Chapter 1 part 1
"Kizuna, the test for today is this program."
A long haired female displayed the content for today's experiment on the monitor.
Kizuna nodded largely after confirming that content.
"I got it, okaa-san. I'll work hard too today."
"Right, you really are a good child. Do your best."
It was a pure white experiment room where there was nothing. There his mother spent all her time doing experiments day by day.
Those experiments were about the development of a new weapon called Heart Hybrid Gear.
That weapon seemed to make use of AU's technology, a bundle of state of the art technology.
However, Kizuna didn't understand well just what kind of thing it was.
What he understood was that a small thing like a capsule called core was embedded inside his body through an operation. And then, with the power of that core, a cool protector like an armor and a weapon would be equipped on his body.
And then when he used that and did the experiments, his mother would be happy, that was all he understood.
"You are the only one in the world who are in possession of Heart Hybrid Gear you know? The result of this experiment will become the key to save the world."
He was proud to be relied on by his mother.
He felt triumphant that he was the only possessor of Heart Hybrid Gear in the world.
He was happy that he was useful to his mother.
He felt a little like a hero.
――Like that, on a certain day.
"Who is that?"
A girl put on a stretcher was carried into the laboratory.
"Looks like she is a lost kid. She was discovered in Tokyo recently."
"Hmmm."
He wondered why was she brought here then? While he was thinking of such thing,
"That's why, it's fine for Kizuna to not come here anymore."
"...eh?"
"That girl's aptitude ability for Heart Hybrid Gear is amazingly high. With Kizuna's spec, it's meaningless to experiment more than this. You are not needed anymore."
Wa,
Wait, a second.
"Good bye, Kizuna. Sayonara."
Wait!
Okaa-san! (Brother)
I, will work even harder!
――That's why!
With a gasp, Hida Kizuna's eyes were awakened.
He reflexively looked around him, he was currently inside a train.
It was the linear motor car that moved in the underground between the megafloats. He was nodding off while sitting in it just now.
――I was seeing a dream of the past in a long while huh.
He felt worried whether he was also talking in his sleep, but there was no one boarding the train other than him.
For him to see that kind of dream... it had been a long time since he went to the academy float, so he wondered if he was nervous.
His image which was reflected in the window was not a kid, but a face of a highschool student. The digital synergy which was located near the door was displaying the map of the Pacific Ocean. On that map there was a red dot moving.
Megafloat(Extra-large Floating Ocean Structure) Japan was in the middle of sailing the Pacific Ocean. Inside the train the air conditioning was working, but recently the Megafloat was nearing the equator, so outside was humidly hot.
The float was a giant city created above the sea.
Tokyo Float, Oosaka Float, etc, each created floats of Japan's administrative divisions were joined, becoming a giant structure that was Megafloat Japan.
That largeness, if it was compare with something of the past, it could rival the hugeness of district 23 of Tokyo, but such scale was still small compared to super large countries like America and the like. The largeness of a megafloat represented the national power of that country. Each country was wandering the seas of the world with their respective unique megafloat.
Currently the very megafloat itself was exactly the country for the countries all over the world which lost their territory, that megafloat was all the territory that they had. The crews and residents of the megafloat were all the people of the country which could be confirmed as safe in the current condition.
For the megafloats that sailed the seas throughout the world, things like territorial waters held no meaning.
World map also didn't exist.
Everything began since the day where the world was overturned.
――The First Another Universe Conflict
Fifteen years ago, without any omen at all, without any advance notice, it happened out of nowhere.
North America, South America, Russia, China, Australia, South Africa, France, Entrances(Collision Surface) towards the alternate universe were appearing. And then, magic weapons that were a fusion of magic and science appeared from those Entrances.
Now that it had come to this condition, nobody understood which side was the one that started it. But, it was an unmistakable fact that it turned into battle situation. And then the fires of war spread in the blink of an eye.
The Entrances towards the alternate universe were opened only for two weeks, but hundred of cities and fifty million people lost their lives. Mankind was completely powerless against the army of the AU.
Like that, the first contact with an alternate universe ended in the worst shape.
Moreover, it was a disappointment that they didn't understand anything about the AU.
They only kept getting attacked by the enemy and their side was unable to attack back. Mankind was still yet to understand the objective of the people of the AU or even their appearance.
And then, half a year ago.
――The Second Another Universe Conflict occurred.
It was a conflict on a scale incomparable with the first one.
Entrances were appearing on each continent and island country, without exception. From there the magic weapons of AU were surging in with great numbers.
Mankind attempted to resist desperately, but mankind's conventional weapons were powerless in front of the technology of AU.
The army was ruined in a flash and the world was conquered.
From the experience with the First Another Universe Conflict, each country was building a megafloat as the ark for emergency use and also as the trump card of battle. So to speak, the megafloat was the country's backup plan. Not to mention the city function, government, economics, etc, the megafloat was equipped with all societal mechanisms, the megafloats were a miniature version of the countries.
Each country that was invaded by AU abandoned their original territory and became a mobile country wandering above the sea with their megafloat.
However, the people unable to board the megafloat were still left behind in the old territory of the country. Right now the megafloat didn't have any means to know what happened to those people. Was everyone massacred, or perhaps they were living safely under enemy rule, they didn't understand the situation in Japan at all.
Even if they tried to make contact, electromagnetic waves were cut off in the land and they couldn't get any transmission.
When they approached their home country, the magic weapons and fleet of AU appeared from the Entrance, that was why the megafloat couldn't carelessly get near even if they wanted to confirm their people's wellbeing.
Even while the people living above the megafloat were living a peaceful life above the safe area that was the sea, they were wishing to once again take back their country, rescue the left behind people, and return home to their city and house.
The linear underground train passed through the Tokyo station.
One wouldn't understand from the underground, but supposedly above the ground there was the station building of Tokyo station that was dismantled from the original Japan and rebuilt here. At the occasion of the construction of each floats, famous buildings from the region of each respective administration divisions were dismantled and rebuilt back on the floats to keep living the characteristic of the regions, schemes to reproduce the scenery and the likes were performed in the construction.
Outside the window suddenly became bright.
His eyes were dazzled by that brightness. He narrowed his eyes and then looked out the window, outside was an endlessly continuing blue sea that glittered from the light of the sun. White clouds floated in the transparent sky, and then the sun of southern country was shining brilliantly.
The linear train ran above the sea crossing over a long bridge.
Ahead of this bridge Kizuna could see the destination where he was going. A special float that was isolated from this Megafloat Japan.
Buildings like a protective wall encircled the surrounding. Rapid fire cannons and missiles protruded out toward every direction at 360°. The atmosphere was exactly like a fortress.
――Tactical Defense Academy Ataraxia.
It was a self-supporting float with a diameter of three kilometers, it was also one of the oldest floats.
Every region's floats were also equipped with unmanned city defense functions, but fundamentally the defense of Megafloat Japan was shouldered by this Ataraxia.
Right after the Another Universe Conflict, this Ataraxia was the foremost line of anti-AU technology, it was a research institution that constantly developed human resources and R&D, other than university, this float was also a joint establishment with high and middle school.
His mother owned a research facility in Ataraxia, so Kizuna was also living in this float when he was small. He was chased out from the research facility seven years ago and was forced to move into Tokyo float. Though it was only for a short time, but he began to live with his big sister there just the two of them.
However his big sister too soon enrolled into Ataraxia. It made Kizuna live alone by himself.
The only ones who could enter Ataraxia were just they who received permission. Kizuna was unable to even approach near Ataraxia.
Every month there was a public advertisement being held for several dozen people to go for a field trip there, but he had never got chosen even once.
He thought that by any chance he might be excluded from the lottery since the beginning, but every month he kept applying.
Although he had sent mail several times to his mother, but he had never received any reply even once.
For a while he also had some exchanges of conversation with his big sister, but it seemed that she was busy and the two of them gradually became estranged.
And then it was yesterday night that his big sister, Hida Reiri, called him by phone after a long time.
{Kizuna?}
"Nee-chan!? It's been a long time, you never contacted me at all but... what are you doing right now?"
{I'm busy with my work. Rather than that, I had arranged the procedure for your admission into Ataraxia. Tomorrow, come until the reception at noon. After you take care of the enrollment procedure, report yourself to the command headquarters. You got that?}
"Ha? What are you saying so suddenly Nee-san? My grade is not that excellent you know. There is just no way I can go to Ataraxia."
Ataraxia was a place that gathered people in order to turn them into the cornerstone of mankind in various fields. No matter how he thought about it, it was not a place he could go to.
{I have business with your Heart Hybrid Gear.}
Kizuna's chest felt a sharp pain.
"Ahaha, Nee-san said something really nostalgic... but, this thing is not useful you know?"
Frankly, he didn't want to activate the thing for a second time.
He didn't want to recall how he was being treated like an unneeded child by his mother.
Moreover, there was also one other reason.
There was a necessity to call out the name of the gear inside oneself in order to activate the Heart Hybrid Gear. That was because it was the activation code.
He didn't want to shout out that name.
When he was a kid he didn't mind it at all, but right now it was a keyword that he didn't want to say overtly.
{I'll be the one to decide whether it's useful or not. If you got it, then do as I say. If you are late tomorrow, I'll make public all of your embarrassing secrets. For example, when you were a child you were trying to go to toilet――}
"I, I got it! I understand!"
The linear motor car arrived at the station and Kizuna got down from the train.
'Just what is Nee-chan thinking? No, rather than that, why did Nee-chan make that kind of call? If I remember right, I heard that Nee-chan's work is some kind of office work though.'
By any chance, was she employed in a company related with Ataraxia?
He didn't know what his big sister was thinking, but honestly he was reluctant to do this.
This place was a place where he had an unpleasant memory as a kid, and it was also the same float where his mother was, those facts made Kizuna's heart become heavy.
He might encounter his mother. He wanted to meet her, but he also didn't want to meet her.
While still harboring such contradictory feelings, he received the entrance inspection.
The inspection was to restrict people without permission to enter Ataraxia.
The reception was not human, but a three dimensional CG character. A pink haired beautiful girl was talking with a synthetic voice that sounded really close to a human voice.
"Confirmation finished. You are Hida Kizuna-san that is arranged to enroll into Tactical Defense Academy Ataraxia today correct? Age is 17 years old, is there no mistake that you will be transferred as a second year high school student?"
