5 Chapter 2 part1

When Aine shouted that, glittering blue lights surged out from her.

"You-, you have done Core's Install(Internal Operation)!?"

The blue light was turning into the shape of Heart Hybrid Gear.

The created shape of the gear was equipped onto Aine as if digging into her soft body.

Armor modeled after vertebral column ran on her back as if in protection of her spine. And then, the largest thruster appeared on her bottom. This part was responsible for the majority of her propulsion force.

On the other side, the front part of the body had surprisingly few areas which were protected. There was no conspicuous armor from her neck until her thigh. However attack from the front could be confirmed by sight, so evading was easy. Moreover, there was the basic function of Heart Hybrid Gear, the Life Saver(Absolute Territory) system which gave protection to the wearer.

This was a sudden talk, but Life Saver was a powerful barrier equipped on Heart Hybrid Gear.

When the blue light enveloping her four limbs was burst open, standing there was a girl equipped with a gear that combined protector and thruster. There were a lot of thrusters on her whole body, so he could guess that it was a gear with fairly high mobility.

When her silver hair was brushed off smoothly, blue particles danced in the air.

"This is... Zeros."

Its brilliance was beautiful, blue light was running through the sleek white armor.

It was a simple but really sharp Heart Hybrid Gear.

He thought that this beautiful gear didn't lose to that stunningly beautiful girl possessing silver hair and red eyes.

Heart Hybrid Gear was hiding a power that greatly eclipsed mankind's conventional weapons. It was the ultimate anti-AU weapon. Behind this technology that displayed an unrealistic performance, there was a rumor that it incorporated the technology of AU from the enemy.

But, there was one point that bothered him from the Heart Hybrid Gear in front of his eyes.

――There was no weapon.

"Can I ask you a little? Is there no weapon in that Heart Hybrid Gear?"

Her red eyes glared at him.

"Please don't say impolite things. Of course it has proper weapons."

What? No wait, perhaps it was an internal type weapon. So even a gear this small had the parts fitted really well.

"It's a weapon invisible for an idiot. So you cannot see it. How pitiful."

"Rather than calling me an idiot, the one telling that kind of story is the one that sounded like an idiot!"

"This gear is paying serious attention to its stealth."

"A technology that make you unable to see your own weapon is just something completely meaningless!"

Aine was crouching down on the ground and then she grasped something like a handle.

What was that? He didn't realize something like that was there at all.

When the handle was twisted, the ground opened quickly, then a metal box appeared from inside it.

"Eh-?"

Inside the box was firearms lining up in a row.

Aine took one firearm from among them. It was a type-89 rifle.

There was nothing unusual about the gun, it was just the official firearm that the Ground Self-Defense Forces utilized once.

"Yo, you... you are, using that?"

"What is it, you have complaints?"

No, he was not complaining though.

Heart Hybrid Gear was something that had armor and weapons combined into it. Even his own gear was furnished with a beam cannon although its offensive power was low.

But, Aine's gear was not furnished with weapons from the beginning.

"You are going to fight with that kind of weapon!? Conventional weapons are ineffective against magic weapons right?"

A ring of blue light was floating around Aine's waist.

The Heart Hybrid Gear was raising its output. That was the sign of commencing flying.

"It's fine already, just escape, you are going to die if you stay here."

Leaving those words behind, Aine faced to the sea and ran, then she flew away from Ataraxia. Blue light stretched out from the thrusters on her waist and feet, flying up Aine to the sky.

"Shit-!"

Kizuna started running.

'Her mouth was bad, but what Chidorigafuchi told me is correct.

My aptitude with Heart Hybrid Gear is low, and to begin with I haven't trained for battle with it since I was a child. So that I won't drag her down, I should evacuate to the shelter.

――But,

I just can't forget Chidorigafuchi who was standing still alone with tears shining in her red eyes.'

Kizuna was walking towards the direction where Aine was heading.

His speed was gradually turning faster, before long he had started to run.

From here he couldn't see well the sky of the city. He had to go to a more open place!

When he ran along the outer edge of Ataraxia, before long he exited the forest and came out into a wide park.

"Wha――"

A gigantic object was flying above his head where it almost grazed him. A terrific gale attacked Kizuna.

Giant!? No, that was a magic weapon!?

By crouching on the ground, he somehow endured from being blown away.

That was the magic weapon of AU! He had seen it before from a photo.

It was a mechanized giant with a total height that surpassed ten meters. Even among the magic weapons which were designed with armor impression, this one had a pair of wings that possessed flying ability, an [Albatross].

No matter how he saw it, it shouldn't be able to fly in the sky based on aviation mechanics, but it was soaring in the sky with mobility that was even higher than an airplane. He didn't understand at all with what kind of technology it was flying in the sky.

The technology of the AU far surpassed the common sense of mankind.

And then, after that a small shadow was passing through him in an instant.

'Chidorigafuchi!?'

He chased the back of the figure flying past him with his eye, but the figure was gone already. When he looked up, he could see a white Heart Hybrid Gear ascending high to the sky chasing after Albatross.

Aine pulled the trigger of the type-89 rifle in her hand and scattered sparks on Albatross' back.

That was a good skill.

If this was a dogfight, then this would be Aine's victory.

However, the armor of Albatross repelled those bullets really easily.

On the contrary Albatross stopped still in the sky and directed its bayonet towards Aine while turning its body behind. Normally, a bayonet was a rifle which had a short sword fixed on its tip, but the bayonet of AU had the shape of sword blade fused with gun grip and trigger as its handle.

When the trigger of that bayonet was pulled, the sword emitted light and a bullet of light was fired heading to Aine.

The speed of the bullet was fast. It was hard to chase it with eyes, but Aine evaded that bullet nimbly. And then she was encircling Albatross and rained bullets from all directions.

But there was no effect.

Aine threw away the magazine that had become empty and inserted a new ammo magazine.

She beautifully evaded the bullet of light that Albatross fired again then she closed the distance in one breath.

And then――

She struck.

"Wait... eeeh-!?"

A strong punch hit Albatross's chin, making that giant body bend backwards greatly.

'Eh... isn't that attack the most effective compared to all she had done until now?'

Aine thrust the muzzle of the type-89 rifle into the gap of the raised neck and pulled the trigger. She kept shooting until her ammo ran out, then Aine kicked the Albatross and took some distance.

The kicked Albatross powerlessly began to fall, after a while it exploded largely. Its scattered fragments transformed into fragments of light while raining down to the ground.

'Amazing! She really defeated a magic weapon with a normal weapon!'

Aine descended down to the ground. Kizuna hurried on to the location where she would land in order to greet her.

"Oi, that's amazing just now! You did it! You defeated a magic weapon from AU!"

However, Aine ignored Kizuna, she once again crouched in the corner of the park and twisted a handle of a hatch.

The box that flew out from the opened ground was lined up with firearms.

"Wait, this kind of thing is everywhere in the float!?"

"Of course. We don't know when the enemy will come attacking after all."

This time Aine took out an even bigger gun than the type-89. It was a 12.7mm heavy machine gun. Normally it was not something that a human could use by carrying it by hand, but this one had been forcefully remodeled so it was usable by hand. Just its main part had the total weight of nearly 40 kilo, but Aine lightly lifted it up.

"Type-89's firepower is just too weak."

After wrapping ammo belt on her body, she flew up to the sky once more.

Seeing off her figure, Kizuna felt like he had been left behind.

In contrast with Aine's action which had no hesitation, Kizuna didn't know what he should do. He was standing still in that place for a while.

――'Shouldn't I also fight?

No, no, just what kind of impertinent thought you had, me.

With my aptitude for Heart Hybrid Gear, I cannot properly fight the enemy', that was what his mother told him. He had beam cannon, but it was hard to break through the armor of magic weapons, and even if he could fly in the sky, he couldn't fly while carrying something heavy.

{Kizuna, it's pointless for human without any talent no matter how hard he works. Talent will shine if it is polished, but if there was nothing to be polished in the first place, then it won't turn into anything.}

The words of his mother were revived in his ear.

His mother was a genius. A person that was like a mass of talent.

His mother's last academic background was as a third year student of elementary school.

At that time she was already publishing numerous reformative papers on the internet. She had tied contracts with several corporations and research institutes as a researcher and mysterious consultants at the same time. Even with her identity unidentified at that time, her existence was like a kind of deity.

The Heart Hybrid Gear was one of the inventions of such a mother.

His big sister was also an abnormally superior person since she was a child. It was overwhelming for him to always be compared with his sister.

But, that big sister herself was always kind to Kizuna.

{Kizuna. The worth of a human is not from the height or depth of their ability. It's a problem of how you live.}

On top of being superior, she was a really good person.

'Among such superhuman family, how should this me that is the most average should live?'

Kizuna stared at Aine who was fighting in the sky.

Even if he couldn't fight directly, wasn't there still something else he could help with?

To equip his Heart Hybrid Gear, there was a need to yell that, its name.

"E..."

'No, no, no!

Calm down, Hida Kizuna!'

Courage was necessary just to shout that name.

Of course, courage was also needed for fighting.

Courage was also needed even for facing his past where he was abandoned by his mother.

And then, it was embarrassing to speak of the code for equipping his gear.

'Shit-! Of all things, just why did that mother of mine pick a naming like that!'

He absolutely hated that name!

When he was a child he didn't understand its meaning and he yelled that name innocently, but then he knew the meaning of that word at a certain time and he felt greatly wounded――

"Hm? What?"

A small shaking was repeating in the ground.

The tiles covering the park were beginning to open like accordion curtains.

"Uwaa-, this is bad-!"

Kizuna started to run.

"Shit-, so this park is using interception system!"

He crossed over the road and hid in the shadow of a building nearby.

From the opened ground, a missile was fired, rising to the sky while trailing flames behind. However, there was no figure of magic weapon where the missile was going.

"Just what are they aiming at?"

Suddenly the missile exploded in the sky.

He took a deep breath and then looked up to the sky once more.

"...hm? That's, what's that?"

The sky where he looked up was strangely distorted when he looked carefully.

When he focused his eyes, that distortion was like something rectangle that was slim and long. It was fairly big.

No way... was that the battleship of AU!?

Shivers ran through his back.

It was mainly rumored that the ship from AU couldn't be discovered by radar searching. If it couldn't be identified by eyesight on top of that, then there would be no way to hit them.

And then from that warship, new magic weapons were descending down.

The second wave of missile was further fired from the park. When he turned back, the wall of the building behind Kizuna's back was beginning to open like a shutter.

"Oi oi! This thing is also a camouflage!?"

Megafloat was constructed with the assumption of fighting the AU. Due to that, defense systems were incorporated everywhere.

From the defense system that was camouflaged as a building, a large type particle cannon appeared.

"Aa―, I cannot keep up with this at all!"

At the same time with him sprinting away, a tremendous roar resounded from his back.

He felt severe heat at his back, but he somehow managed to not end up dead by being roasted.

He patted his chest while sighing in relief before looking for a place where he could calm down, he continued to run recklessly.

After a while, he arrived at a place where there were many warehouses lining up.

Perhaps there were stray shots hitting this place, but there were many cardboard boxes scattered around haphazardly, the snacks stored inside the boxes were scattered everywhere.

Kizuna put his hand on the wall and tried to put his breathing in order.

"Haa, haaa... a, anyway, seems like this place is not a dummy warehouse. As expected it's not a defense system."

At the other side of the warehouse was immediately the sea. In the end, it seemed that he had run along the edge of Ataraxia.

He could see explosions happening in the sky far away. A red light was drawing a line, flying around in the sky.

Was that Chidorigafuchi Aine?

Suddenly, while he was thinking about such thing, a gigantic hand appeared before his eyes.

"Wha-...!?"

That hand which had sea water dripping from it caught hold of Ataraxia's edge.

With a pull-up trick, that body showed its figure.

A giant body with horn growing on it was overflowing with sea water, a magic weapon was landing on Ataraxia.

Its total height was ten meters. A category-B magic weapon, [Viking].

Shit-! Now that it had come to this, he wouldn't be able to escape without making some sacrifice. There was nothing to do but equipping his Heart Hybrid Gear.

It was not for fighting, but for escaping.

"E――"

At that moment, a hole opened in the Viking's body.

'Chidorigafuchi!?'