The Academy's Secret Garden
"...What? W-what do you mean...!"
Yuzuki nearly dropped her chopsticks at the unexpected news.
"Big brother... is transferring into the Academy?"
For a moment, her mind went completely blank.
Instinctively sensing that the words she'd just heard were no joke, Yuzuki turned toward her father with an expression of disbelief.
"Why? All of a sudden... why would he go there..."
Her chin trembled, and her lips quivered.
An incomprehensible sequence of events and an inexplicable sense of bewilderment began to writhe up from the base of her neck.
It felt dizzying, uncomfortable... an emotion too difficult to put into words. In the end, Yuzuki couldn't continue speaking and lowered her head. The strength in her fingers showed beneath the dining table. The faint tremor at her fingertips. Even she couldn't identify exactly what this feeling was.
"Yuzuki."
Her father Hideo's low voice cut across the room. It wasn't particularly stern, but it carried a decision that could not be undone.
"The results from this Coupling were no simple fluke. The Synchronization Rate you and your brother achieved is higher than any record we've seen before."
"Well... that's true, but..."
That was exactly why Yuzuki felt so shaken.
At first, the numbers had been so high she'd wondered if the measurement had been wrong.
Even the Academy had never reached a figure like that before.
"Exactly. As you know, this level of compatibility with a male pilot is completely unprecedented. The entire research team has begun analysis. It's a phenomenon that can't be explained by existing theories. It could very well become a historic turning point."
"...But you can't seriously mean that I have to keep Coupling with my brother at the Academy too, right?!"
The chair scraped back with a loud thud. Yuzuki shot to her feet and shouted.
Hideo closed his eyes and gave a single nod.
"For now, you were Yuto's first partner. Changing partners at this stage would carry a high risk of contaminating the data. Until we establish a stable pattern, there's no choice but for you to continue."
"That's...!?"
"Is there some kind of problem?"
".....Problem?"
"Yes."
"...."
Instead of answering her father, Yuzuki whipped her head around and glared at her older brother, Yuto.
He was quietly eating his rice with an unreadable expression. Despite suddenly being told to quit his university studies and enroll at the Academy, he looked almost calm.
"...Big brother, say something. Are you really going to the Academy with me?"
"Father asked me to."
"No...! What about the university you were attending?! You said you liked it there!"
"If it doesn't work out, I can always go back after Father's research is finished."
"A... agh! Seriously, I can't talk to you!"
Seeing that her brother had already been won over by their father, Yuzuki clutched her head in frustration.
Thinking back to what had happened that day made her head burn.
The sound of her brother's breathing in the cockpit, the sensation at her fingertips, the way her entire body had trembled endlessly from feelings she'd never experienced before—it all came back to her with vivid clarity.
The unknown sensation that had set her insides on fire, far removed from ordinary Coupling.
What could she even call it? To Yuzuki, it had been far too unfamiliar... so unfamiliar that...
She found it impossible to express to her father in words.
No—even if she could describe it, there was no way she could actually explain something like that.
"Yuzuki... is it really impossible for you?"
"...I don't know. I'll think about it in my room. Give me some time."
Yuzuki kept her head down, refusing to look at anyone. The moment she finished speaking, she spun away from the table.
She practically kicked off the floor with her heels as she stood and dashed down the hallway beside the kitchen. Her slippers slid across the floor, and a few steps later came the loud slam of her bedroom door.
On the table she'd left behind, her bowl of soup—still warm—and her chopsticks sat in quiet abandonment.
"Haa..."
Hideo quietly set down his own chopsticks. It had been a long time since he'd seen his daughter react so violently. A deep sigh escaped him.
He didn't want to ignore his daughter's feelings.
But Hideo understood.
This result was no coincidence.
Connected to Yuto in a way entirely different from the norm, she had revealed a new possibility. A Synchronization Rate this high with a male partner? It was data that had never existed before.
Somehow, this had to continue.
If they could use this result to stably cultivate male pilots, it would undoubtedly become a new game changer.
Whether one liked it or not, men were simply better suited for combat than women. Physically and mentally, it was an unavoidable truth of humanity's evolutionary process.
Lost in thought, Hideo turned his head. His eyes fell on Yuto, who was still silently continuing his meal across the table.
He hadn't even set down his chopsticks. His expression remained completely unchanged as he swallowed another bite.
"...Are you really okay with this? You'll have to leave the university you were attending."
At the question, Yuto lifted his head. His face was still nearly expressionless, but his eyes held a certain clarity. He looked like a responsible young man.
"Yes. This is an important matter for the safety of humanity."
It was a short answer, but a reassuring one.
Hideo nodded, seemingly relieved. His heart felt a little lighter.
"I'm truly glad you're willing to cooperate. Thank you."
"Not at all. I'm glad I can help you, Father."
To his father's words, Yuto simply wore the face of a dutiful son.
The Academy was an institution where female students who had graduated high school trained to pilot Dracores.
However, it didn't have the strict, boot-camp atmosphere of a typical military training facility.
Instead, taking the pilots' mental states into consideration, it adopted a structure closer to a private academy.
Perhaps that was why the scenes depicted in the anime didn't differ much from those of an ordinary high school.
There were combat drills and training, of course, but there was also regular school life and campus events.
"...It's practically a flower garden."
While looking up additional information about the Academy, I found myself laughing foolishly in front of the screen.
Dracores were extremely sensitive bio-mechanical weapons, so only pilots who met very specific conditions could operate them. And until now, every single person who had satisfied those conditions had been female.
In the end, the Academy was essentially an exclusive school for girls only.
A closed-off society of women hidden from ordinary men. And now, I was about to step into it.
I imagined it. An academy where everyone except me was female. School uniforms, shower rooms, summer gym clothes, swimming classes...
My heart raced. Just thinking about it made the excitement impossible to stop.
I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling. I was already beginning to love this world.
At this point, I had zero desire to return to my original world.
The only problem was that piloting a Dracore meant I would have to fight the monsters that came from other dimensions, but that was something I'd simply have to overcome with willpower.
'How am I supposed to make up with Yuzuki?'
As I stared blankly at the ceiling, I thought of my little sister. The girl currently holed up in her room in protest didn't seem interested in calming down anytime soon.
Honestly, I wasn't even sure what I'd done wrong.
I had simply helped with Father's experiment and focused with everything I had.
No matter how I thought about it, I couldn't see any fault on my part, yet strangely enough, I wasn't angry.
Was it because she was the girl who had given me my first experience?
To be honest, Coupling with Yuzuki had been a far more intense experience than I'd expected.
It felt like having sex for the very first time.
No—it went even deeper than that. A sensation where feelings tangled together on a whole other level.
Not body to body, but a connection that ran inward through the very concept of emotion. With only a single suit between us, the feedback that licked and tightened around each other's nerves had been close to sexual pleasure.
That sensation was still faintly writhing in the palm of my hand.
And the fact that Yuzuki had been the first person to share it with me left behind an emotion even I found difficult to explain.
Thanks to that, even in my dreams lately, the scene of riding a Dracore with my little sister kept repeating.
Even though it wasn't real combat, the moments when I reacted to her every breath and became intoxicated by her every heartbeat.
If I had been the original 'Yuto,' Yuzuki would have simply been my little sister, but...
Honestly, to me, Yuzuki felt more like some unfamiliar girl who had suddenly appeared one day claiming to be my sister.
In other words, she felt less like family and more like a beautiful girl. And even her prickly attitude was starting to seem cute.
"...I'm losing it."
When my thoughts began to cross a dangerous line, I rubbed my face and muttered to myself.
No matter what, since I was now living in this world, I needed to be mindful of social appearances.
An older brother who felt sexual desire for his little sister? That was something I had to hold back.
After reflecting on myself for a long time, I suddenly stood up.
Since things had come to this, I decided to show Yuzuki the generous heart of an older brother.
Besides, I would need her help a lot to adapt to life at the Academy.
With that resolve, I left my room and walked up to her door.
Just as I raised my hand to knock—
—Haa... ngh...
From beyond the door came a suppressed sound, as if she were trying to hold her breath.
The quiet noise that reached my ears made my fingertips instinctively freeze.
—Mm... hngh...
A subtly fractured breath, as though she were concentrating on something. Inhales and stifled sighs alternated in succession.
Every single breath that slipped into my ears sent a faint heat running down my spine.
In that instant, the sensation from our Coupling flashed through my mind.
Her pulse transmitted through the suit, the way her breathing had trembled faintly. That thrill was coming back to life again, right on the other side of this door.
And then it happened.
—...Yuto...
Faintly, but clearly, my name flowed out from beyond the door, carried on a voice heated with arousal.
It was almost a whisper, the kind of unconscious slip that escapes in the heat of the moment.
It was nothing like a simple family name being called.
Because of that, I unconsciously swallowed hard at the image of Yuzuki that filled my mind.
What kind of expression was she making right now? What posture? With what kind of trembling was she thinking of me?
Part of me wanted to open the door right then and there.
But I carefully lowered the hand I'd raised to knock, took one step back, and returned to my own room.